Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is seen angrily confronting a women during a campaign rally in Yerevan on May 18

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan vowed to “kill” his political rivals during a confrontation with yet another woman who deigned to voice her views on Artsakh during a campaign rally in Yerevan on Monday.

The incident, captured on video and widely circulated on social media, comes a weeks after the now-infamous outburst by Pashinyan against an Artsakh Armenian and her child on the Yerevan Metro.

Pashinyan used a version of the word “kill” that is commonly associated with the death of an animal. His threat to wipe out his rivals stemmed unhinged shouting match by the prime minister when a disgruntled woman approached him and accused him of having “stolen my fatherland, presumably referring to Artsakh.

The woman, who was later identified as Arpine Soghoyan, continued by saying, “You have wiped out a whole young generation. “You have stolen my brother, my joy. You’ve tried to bring us to our knees. But we haven’t gotten on our knees.”

“If you are Rob, I’m going to bring Rob to his knees, Rob is going to go to prison, I’m going to kill Rob,” Pashinyan shouted back, referring to former president Robert Kocharian. “I’m also going to bring the Kaluga man (Samvel Karapetian) to his knees and take him out. Serzh [Sarkisian] and Gago [Gagik Tsarukyan] as well.”

Pashinyan also rejected Soghoyan’s claim that he has “ruined the country.”

“You have ruined, plundered it with Karabakh,” Pashinyan shouted back in what appeared to be another attack on Artsakh Armenians.

Soghoyan’s daughter, Tatevik, who is an attorney, told Azatutyun.am that her mother, who is a gynecologist and an obstetrician was asked to resign her post after the public argument on Monday.

Dr. Soghoyan, who is the sister of Hrant Papikyan, who has been missing since the 2020 Artsakh War, currently holds two positions, one at the Polytechnic Clinic and the other at a private hospital. Tatevik Soghoyan did not specify which establishment had asked her mother to resign.

Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan earlier had rejected that any individual should be removed from their position due to their political views.

Pashinyan continued his rant against Dr. Soghoyan by blaming his election challengers for a newly released video in which masked men speaking in an apparent Artsakh Armenian dialect are for his violent overthrow. He described the unknown men as “fugitives” from Artsakh and said he will “take them out” too, Azatutyun.am reported.

It is unclear where from where the video emanated, but it was aired by several media outlets and was shared by many of Pashinyan’s Civil Contract members when the prime minister posted it following his shouting match with Dr. Soghoyan.

The two-minute video shows five men wearing masks and brandishing weapon while accusing Pashinyan of “selling out” Artsakh. The men vowed that the prime minister “will answer for” that.

“So they have masks on, as if they are tough guys. Where were these scumbags during the war?” Pashinyan said in a video on social media.

“Do you know why they are wearing masks? Because as soon as they take off their masks, we will see that these are the ones who have filled their pockets, fled, left our soldiers alone, and I do not rule out shooting them in the back,” Pashinyan accused.

Armenia’s Investigative Committee said it has launched a criminal probe in connection with the video. In a statement the Investigative Committee said the probe was “over allegations involving preparation for murder by a group of individuals, computer sabotage, and the illegal circulation of firearms and ammunition. A pre-trial investigation is underway to identify those responsible.”

Opposition activists were quick to accuse Pashinyan and his campaign team of releasing the video in order to create chaos ahead of the elections.

According to Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a lawmaker from the Armenia bloc, the video “has the government’s fingerprints on it, where Pashinyan stages it and then turns into a tool to threaten people.”

“That is, when he is in trouble, he concocts a staged attack of terrorism, an assassination attempt against him, with the aim of sowing seeds among the people early and thereby justifying his illegal steps against the opposition, violence and arrests, and the overthrow of the country’s constitutional order in general,” Saghatelyan added.

Saghatelyan urged Pashinyan not to create such scenarios, because, he said the opposition has no intention of killing or harming him. Instead, he insisted that Pashinyan should stand trial.

“Our people need you alive and well. We will do everything to ensure your safety, because our people need you alive. For what? So that you can testify in court why and how you surrendered Artsakh, why you caused the death of around 5,000 people, who are your accomplices, why you did this betrayal and all this to the state of our people?” Saghatelyan added.

Similar statements were made by other opposition candidates including Narek Karapetyan of “Strong Armenia” bloc and former human rights defender Arman Tatoyan of “Wings of Unity” party.

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