Pashinyan Publicly Lashes Out at Displaced Woman from Artsakh on Yerevan Metro

In a widely circulated photo in Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is wagging his finger at a passenger on the Metro, whom he lashed out against on Mar. 22

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Sunday publicly lashed out at a displaced woman from Artsakh while he and his political allies were riding the Yerevan Metro as part of their weekly pre-election campaign.

While on the metro, Pashinyan, who was also accompanied by his bodyguards, engaged in a conversation with a young woman who was riding with her son. Both were among more than 100,000 Armenians who were forcibly displaced from Artsakh when Azerbaijan launched a massive military attacking in September, 2023, in what was deemed by legal and rights advocates to be ethnic cleansing.

The conversation escalated into an argument after the woman refused to accept a pin offered by Pashinyan depicting Armenia without Artsakh, Azatutyun.am reported.

The refusal angered Pashinyan who wagged his finger at the woman. The prime minister has repeatedly said that the Karabakh Liberation Movement, which started in 1988, must end and Artsakh Armenians should abandon any hope of returning to their homeland.

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

Later on Sunday, while still on the campaign trail, responding to a reporter inquiring about his “runaways” remark regarding Artsakh Armenians, Pashinyan said he did not recall making such a statement but added that he would apologize if he had made it.

Pashinyan subsequently offered a direct—yet tacit—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,” Pashinyan 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.”

In his apology statement, posted on Facebook, Pashinyan identified the woman as being Armine Mossiyan, who is the daughter of the late Artsakh War hero Meroujan Mossiyan.

According to Artsakh’s former State Minister and Human Rights Defender Artak Beglaryan, Pashinyan’s actions amounted to targeting the entire population of Artsakh as a collective.

“In a broad sense, using labels such as ‘runaways,’ devaluing the importance of Artsakh, the demeaning of our right of return all—collectively—apply to the people of Artsakh,” Beglaryan told Azatutyun.am.

He defended Mossiyan, saying she was just excercising her rights and expressing her opinion. “The head of the country has no right to say in any way: ‘You should forget that, forget about the return,’” Beglaryan said.

Pashinyan uses anti-Artsakh policy to maintain his power, the former official insisted. “To ‘justify’ his mistakes, failures, this is what is sad for us.”

Beglaryan, who is engaged in protecting the rights of those forcibly displaced from Artsakh in Armenia, qualifies Mossiyan’s behavior as reasonable, and Pashinyan’s apology as “pre-election propaganda.”

“We have the right to return to Artsakh, and the Republic of Armenia, as a state, has an assumed responsibility to support us in protecting our rights, no matter how much the authorities do not want to take that responsibility. Instead, they are supporting Aliyev’s policy,” Beglaryan said, referring to President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.

Even after Pashinyan’s apology, the pro-Pashinyan newspaper “Civic” continued to target the Mossiyan.

After Pashinyan’s disparaging remarks toward Artsakh Armenians, the country’s human rights defender Anahit Manasyan did not condemn the prime minister’s behavior or directly address the incident. Instead she 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,” Manasyan 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.”

Pashinyan’s latest public outburst directed toward Artsakh Armenians angered many opposition forces, who condemned the prime minister’s behavior.

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