The Armenian Prime Minister’s casual language fight with a forcibly displaced woman from Artsakh in the Yerevan subway turned into a high-profile political scandal. Nikol Pashinyan’s public outburst, the accusations against people who lost their homes and the hasty apology that followed revealed the deep crisis in the relationship between the government and society, turning the political agenda into a stage of social hostility.
The scene unfolding in the Yerevan metro carriage seemed to become a regular episode of a politician’s interaction with the people. However, the polite refusal of the woman, who was forced to leave Nagorno-Karabakh, to take the pre-election booklets, caused an unexpected harsh reaction from the Prime Minister. Waving a finger in front of a small child and being surrounded by a dense circle of bodyguards. Nikol Pashinyan went on a rant, accusing the refugees of having spent “billions” on them, and throwing categorical words; “Don’t try to say that I gave away Karabakh with those who escaped.” Just hours later, realizing the scale of the outrage on social media, the Prime Minister released a video message apologizing and calling for a new meeting.
To independent observers and political opponents, however, this gesture was not so much a sign of genuine remorse as a clumsy attempt to minimize the damage done to his reputation. As a political commentator notes Hakob Badalyan, this apology is more like a carefully calculated urban-technological trap. The woman’s consent to the meeting will instantly turn the state propaganda machine in favor of the prime minister, and her refusal will give a legitimate reason for a new wave of persecution. The vocabulary chosen by the head of the government also deserves special attention. The use of the term “Karabaghtsi” instead of “Artsakh citizen” is an obvious attempt to balance internal resentment and the fear of provoking the anger of the president of neighboring Azerbaijan.
It was this sharp contrast between the behavior of the Prime Minister of Armenia in the international arena and within the country that made him the leader of the Wings of Unity alliance, a candidate for the Prime Minister. Arman Tatoyan the target of harsh criticism. In his address, the politician noted that the metro incident finally tore Pashinyan’s mask of pacifism. According to Tatoyan, the man who lavishly distributes “pachiks and hearts” to the public every day showed his true face, trying to humiliate the Armenian mother in the presence of his entourage. The opposition figure pointed out the astonishing metamorphosis. In meetings with Ilham Aliyev, the head of the government smiles, obligingly offers coffee and shows extreme obedience, but when he returns to his homeland, he “cuts a lion” and unleashes his aggression on defenseless citizens. Instead of fighting against an external threat, the government itself becomes a generator of internal hatred, Tatoyan emphasized, promising to become a leader who will heal wounds and unite society, not divide it for the sake of keeping the seat.
In the background of such uncompromising and harsh criticism of the former ombudsman, the acting Human Rights Defender of Armenia Anahit Manasyan the response was too restrained and abstract. In his official statement, he never directly mentioned either the name of the prime minister or the actual incident in the subway. Instead of giving a specific legal assessment to the actions of the first person of the country, the existing HRD was satisfied with general statements that political rhetoric is activated in the electoral processes. Manasyan only called on “officials, all political and public actors” to show the necessary sensitivity when communicating with forcibly displaced people in order not to deepen their vulnerability. This evasive call to create an “atmosphere of solidarity”, which carefully avoids direct criticism of the outrageous behavior of the head of state, only emphasizes the depth of the existing institutional crisis in the country.
The problem is actually much deeper than a politician’s personal intemperance. Political scientist Tigran Grigoryan diagnoses the consequences of this incident very accurately. such behavior of the first person of the state legitimizes hate speech at the household level. When the prime minister publicly announced that he was giving financial aid to the people who lost their homeland, he gave a green light to the extremist elements of his electorate. The wheel of aggression launched in the metro will inevitably move to social networks, kitchens and streets, destroying the already fragile fabric of Armenian society.
The actions of the information resources affiliated with the ruling “Civil Pact” party became the absolute confirmation of this political hypocrisy. While Pashinyan was publicly apologizing, the party’s Civic.am periodical began purposefully publishing angry posts on the same woman’s personal social pages. This is a classic method of political reprisal, which, according to experts, is aimed at marginalizing any voice that dares to criticize the government.
“Instead of acting as a guarantor of the nation’s unity in this difficult historical period, the state machine directs huge resources to driving a wedge between the people of Armenia and those forcibly displaced from Artsakh. This dangerous course does not solve any of the country’s institutional problems, but creates new, deep lines of division, which will no longer be possible to heal with the occasional apologies in messengers,” the experts say.
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