Our very first rally confirmed the authorities' main fear – the people are confident in their strength and will not back down under pressure. I would like to once again thank the tens of thousands of my compatriots who showed civic courage on July 4 and continue to do so to this day. This is stated in a statement released by businessman Samvel Karapetyan, who is currently under arrest.

The statement notes, in particular:

"I am also sincerely grateful to everyone who has expressed their support for me. There has been much discussion of my message in recent days, but unfortunately, some interpretations have been divorced from reality. I think I expressed myself very simply: we will create a fundamentally new political force.

I have great respect for the political forces and figures who are still fighting against the anti-national policies of Nikol Pashinyan's government. But we have our own vision for the future of Armenia. And we will follow our own path, with our new team, without ruling out internal political cooperation with like-minded people. We will try to unite our people around just and noble goals. We will reject the black-and-white and other artificial divisions that these authorities have imposed on society, dividing and weakening our country.

Even within the various branches of the current regime, there are true professionals who do not share the values of a small group, but do not yet see a way out of the current situation.

The formation of our political team has begun.

We will do it our way."