Canadian-Armenian Hratch Jabrayan, who is being criminally persecuted in Armenia for his Facebook post about “terrorizing” and “destroying” traitors, is the executive director of Apage Foundation and the creator of the program for resettlement in Shushi. According to Armenian News-NEWS.am, Jabrayan returned to Canada before a criminal case was launched in regard to his Facebook post. Before that, Jabrayan was actively participating in the protests against Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and was even apprehended. Over the past few years, the Canadian-Armenian businessman has made large investments in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), particularly in Shushi, which is currently under the control of Azerbaijan. In particular, Jabrayan was implementing a large housing project that envisaged allocating free apartments to Armenians moving to Shushi in the next five years in order to resettle the Armenian city and multiply the number of its population. Due to this project, before the war, hundreds of Armenians of Artsakh were provided with jobs, but after the war, Jabrayan not only lost his belongings, but also lost his friends and most of the employees of the program in the war.

Yesterday, on Feb. 3 the Investigative Committee of Armenia issued a press release regarding the institution of a case in regard to the Facebook post by a Facebook user by the name of “Hratch Jabrayan” (“I wrote on November 10…I haven’t changed my opinion…the traitors need to be terrorized…Dashnaktsutyun, you’re very late…strike the traitor”) containing calls to use force.

In response to the press release of the Investigative Committee, the Canadian-Armenian businessman posted on his Facebook page the following: “As always, the Investigative Committee of Armenia is a slave to the traitor Pashayev…I am terribly scared…” Later, Jabrayan, addressing the Investigative Committee, recalled that on November 15, 2020, a Facebook user had threatened to kill him, but the law-enforcement authorities hadn’t processed the case.