Azerbaijani soldier Nasimi Musayev shot at Syunik resident Ani Avetisyan in her home in Shaki village

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday downplayed a breach of Armenia’s border last week by an Azerbaijani soldier, who entered a residence in the Shaki village in Syunik, held children at gunpoint and shot a woman, who is still being treated for serious injuries.

He not only rebuked the injured woman, Ani Avetisyan, but seemingly blamed her for the severity of the incident, saying she should not have confronted the Azerbaijani AWOL soldier, Nasimi Musayev, when he entered her house.

Speaking at parliament on Wednesday, Pashinyan called the armed attack an ordinary “criminal incident,” as opposition lawmakers continued to denounce his government’s failure to track down and catch Musayev before the home invasion,

Musayev was arrested last Thursday shortly after wounding 39-year-old Ani Avetisyan, at her home in Shaki. Avetisyan ran to the house after being alerted about the intrusion by one of her children. According to her sister, Arpi, she was shot in the foot and hand while attempting to pull Musayev’s assault rifle away from the two teenage children.

Avetisyan managed to stab the intruder with a kitchen knife before he fled the scene and was captured by local police. She remains in a hospital in Yerevan, with doctors there reportedly trying to save her foot from amputation. One of her children, a 15-year-old boy, was also injured and hospitalized.

Pashinyan told lawmakers that Avetisyan called the police before rushing to the scene, suggesting that she should have waited until law enforcement arrived, when her young children were in the home with the Azerbaijani soldier.

“But before the police arrived, the mother got there first,” Pashinyan said, in response to a question from an opposition parliamentarian. “Had they waited for the police to arrive, in all likelihood, nothing would have happened.”

Pashinyan also downplayed the incident late on Tuesday in an interview with Infocom.am that prompted angry reactions from opposition figures and Avetisyan’s sister, Azatutyun.am reported.

“He [Musayev] went and fell asleep in that house; then the homeowners arrived and discovered him, and it was amid that element of surprise and the ensuing chaos that the whole incident took place,” he said.

Pashinyan emphasized the fact that the Azerbaijani soldier was also injured and did not put up resistance during his arrest. He also claimed that the magazine of the soldier’s rifle was fully loaded at that point.

“It wasn’t fully loaded,” countered Arpi Avetisian. “He fired one shot but missed. He tried to fire the second one at the kid, and Ani’s fingers and foot were hit as she attempted to lower the weapon.” Arpi Avetisian added that while Musayev was attempting to reload his weapon, her sister stabbed the Azerbaijani assailant.

“They probably should have covered him [with a blanket] so he wouldn’t catch a cold,” she said with sarcasm.

The wounded woman’s sister also slammed Pashinyan for categorically ruling out the possibility that Musayev crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on a sabotage mission. Armenian law-enforcement authorities investigating the incident have not drawn such a conclusion so far.

“If he had lost his way and didn’t want to cause harm, he should have surrendered, instead of attacking a family,” Arpi Avetisian told Azatutyun.am.

“In effect, Nikol Pashinyan — if not justifying — is at least attempting to downplay the actions of the armed Azerbaijani who shot an Armenian woman in the presence of her children,” Marianna Ghahramanyan, a spokeswoman for the main opposition Strong Armenia alliance, wrote in a late-night Facebook post. “And, as with various other criminal cases, he is steering the course of the investigation by rushing to dismiss the possibility of a subversive infiltration.”

Ghahramanyan also repeated opposition claims that Pashinyan is intent on freeing and repatriating Musayev as part of his appeasement policy towards Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan said in this regard that the captured soldier must be tried and “serve at least part of his sentence in Armenia.” The premier effectively dismissed calls to try to exchange him for some of at least 19 Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani authorities say that Musayev deserted on September 26 an Azerbaijani army unit deployed on the Armenian border. Armenia’s National Security Service claims to have been notified by them about his disappearance on September 29, two days before the violent incident. It never issued security alerts to residents of nearby Armenian communities. Pashinyan on Monday fired a deputy head of the NSS overseeing Armenian border guards.

Armenian opposition lawmakers demanded Defense Minister Suren Papikyan be fired earlier on Tuesday, blaming him for the fact that Musayev crossed the militarized border unnoticed and advanced deep into Armenian territory. Papikyan acknowledged “shortcomings” in the border protection when he spoke in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

“They have had and will have consequences, but we can talk about the full extent of those consequences after the internal investigation is over,” Papikyan said.