An exiled activist from Nagorno-Karabakh arrested on May 18 right after publicly arguing with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian remained on hunger strike for the fifth day on Monday.
Pashinian was approached by Artur Osipian as he campaigned in Yerevan’s northern Arabkir district for the June 7 parliamentary elections. Osipian asked him questions and criticized his policies on Karabakh, sparking a furious reaction from him. Moments after his supporters and bodyguards dragged away Osipian, Pashinian picked up a megaphone and rushed towards the Karabakh Armenian man, shouting insults and threats also addressed to “Karabakh pseudo-elites.”
“You should have died when there was the Karabakh issue. Why are you alive at all, you scumbag?” cried the premier.
Osipian, who publicly campaigned against Karabakh’s last leadership before the region’s recapture by Azerbaijan, was arrested and indicted following the incident. Armenia’s Investigative Committee claimed that he disrupted public order and obstructed the ruling Civil Contract’s election campaign. It also charged him with calling for a violent attack on Pashinian in a social media post in March.
Osipian, who denies the accusations, went on hunger strike to protest against his arrest and demand an apology from Pashinian. His lawyer Davit Hovannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday that he is continuing to refuse food. Hovannisian complained about his client’s prison conditions, saying that he is held in a damp and dark cell.
Osipian’s arrest has also been condemned by more than a dozen Western-funded Armenian civic organizations. In a joint statement issued last Wednesday, they said he is prosecuted on “illegal, baseless and politically motivated” charges and demanded his immediate release. A Yerevan court ignored the appeal, allowing investigators to hold Osipian in pretrial custody for the next two months.
During his campaign tour of Arabkir, Pashinian also lost his temper after being confronted by several other disgruntled citizens. They included the sister of a senior military medic who went missing during the 2020 war in Karabakh. The woman blamed Pashinian for her loss and accused him of having “stolen my fatherland.”
Pashinian responded by linking her to the leaders of Armenia’s three main opposition groups and pledging to “take out” them. His outbursts drew strong condemnation from the opposition contenders. One of them demanded criminal proceedings against Pashinian. Law-enforcement authorities have essentially ignored the demand.
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