Erik Karapetyan takes legal action over song stolen by Azerbaijanis

Armenian singer Erik Karapetyan has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit over his song Voch Avel, Voch Pakas, which was performed by Azerbaijani singers on the Russian state-owned TV channel Rossiya 1 and falsely presented as an Azerbaijani song.

"For years, Voch Avel, Voch Pakas has been illegally modified and performed in different languages and countries without permission," Karapetyan said in a social media post on Wednesday.

"I remained silent. But I lost my patience when, just a few days ago, Rossiya 1 aired a distorted version of my song for the second time during Andrey Malakhov’s Sunday Show – this time performed by Azerbaijanis, once again without authorization," the singer wrote.

He emphasized that the song was composed in Yerevan in 2018, with the music written by him and the lyrics by Grigor Kyokchyan.

"I have taken legal action and will fight to the end within the legal framework for copyright protection. Unauthorized use or modification of a work constitutes copyright infringement and distortion," Karapetyan asserted.

He also expressed gratitude to everyone who had spoken out and supported him.