The incident took place as Pashinian, accompanied by bodyguards and political allies, rode the metro in Yerevan as part of his weekly pre-election outreach. He engaged in a conversation with a young woman traveling with her son, both among more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians who fled to Armenia in 2023 following Azerbaijan’s military recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The conversation escalated into an argument after the woman refused to accept a pin badge offered by Pashinian depicting Armenia without Nagorno-Karabakh. The refusal drew an angry response from the prime minister, who has repeatedly stated that the movement for the region’s self-determination, which began in 1988, has ended and that Armenians should no longer consider returning to homes in what is now an Azerbaijani-administered region.

At one point, Pashinian raised his voice, calling Karabakh Armenians “runaways” and saying that they should not accuse him of “giving away” the region.

The dispute comes ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for June, in which Pashinian and his ruling Civil Contract party are seeking reelection on a platform that includes making peace in the region “irreversible.”

More than 200 Karabakh Armenian servicemen were killed and hundreds more wounded during brief hostilities with Azerbaijan on September 19-20, 2023 which ended with the de facto leadership of the region agreeing to disband its unrecognized government. At least 218 Karabakh Armenians were killed and 120 injured in a fuel depot explosion near Stepanakert amid a mass exodus that followed.

The Armenian government, also drawing on international funding, has allocated tens of millions of dollars in aid to displaced Karabakh Armenians, including temporary housing, monthly allowances, and subsidized housing programs. However, many have described the assistance as insufficient.

After Pashinian’s remarks, which sounded disparaging toward Karabakh Armenians, Ombudswoman Anahit Manasian urged officials and public figures to show sensitivity when addressing issues affecting displaced persons and refugees.

“Communication with forcibly displaced persons and refugees, as well as discussions concerning their rights, must be conducted with appropriate restraint, taking into account the vulnerability of these groups,” Manasian said, adding that such an approach is required by international legal standards.

Noting that “political rhetoric often intensifies during election periods, sometimes resulting in insensitive attitudes toward vulnerable groups,” she called on officials and society to ensure public discourse fosters “solidarity, inclusiveness, and mutual respect.”

Pashinian’s political opponents also criticized his remarks, describing his tone toward the woman as inappropriate.

Later, while still on the campaign trail, when asked by a reporter about his “runaways” remark regarding Karabakh Armenians, Pashinian said he did not recall making such a statement but added that he would apologize if he had made it.

The prime minister subsequently offered a direct apology to the woman, her son, and to “everyone,” acknowledging that some of his remarks were inappropriate and resulted from “heightened emotion.”

“From certain comments and criticisms by our colleagues, I understood that not everything in what I said was as perhaps it should have been. I apologize to you and your son for those emotions, and I hope that we will have a chance to meet in the metro or somewhere else and talk calmly,” Pashinian said. “I apologize again and admit that some of what I said wasn’t said properly, with the proper gesturing, tone and facial _expression_, and in some of it I didn’t treat the content correctly, but this topic is still one of the most emotional topics for me, and I apologize to everyone.”

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