Displaced Karabakh resident charged after confrontation with Pashinyan

By Siranush Adamyan

Armenian authorities have slapped a displaced Artsakh Armenian man with three criminal charges after he confronted Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during an election campaign event, in a case that human rights observers and critics describe as politically motivated and legally unfounded.

The man named Artur Osipyan was detained after publicly criticizing Pashinyan and confronting him about the Nagorno-Karabakh issue during a campaign event in Yerevan on Monday. The confrontation quickly escalated, with the prime minister responding angrily and using harsh language toward the man, according to videos circulating online.

“You are the one spreading Azerbaijani narratives. [...] You destroyed Artsakh,” Osipyan told the prime minister at the end of what originally started as a restrained conversation.

Investigators later charged Osipyan with hooliganism, obstructing election campaigning, and publicly calling for violence. His lawyer, Roman Yeritsyan, said investigators had also petitioned the court to place the displaced man in pre-trial detention.

Law enforcement authorities have not publicly clarified which specific words or actions formed the basis of the charges.

The incident drew widespread attention after footage showed a heated exchange between Osipyan and Pashinyan. During the argument, the prime minister lashed out at the man and used threatening language, saying: “I will smash you. I will make you kneel before me. I will extinguish you.”

In another controversial moment during the confrontation, Pashinyan publicly addressed the displaced Artsakh Armenian with the remark: “Why are you not dead anyway? Why are you alive?” These comments were widely interpreted as suggesting that the man should have remained behind and fought during the forced exodus from Artsakh in 2023.

The remarks sparked criticism from civil society groups and opposition figures, who accused the prime minister of using inflammatory and dehumanizing rhetoric against displaced Armenians.

The Akanates Observation Mission described the criminal prosecution and detention request against Osipyan as “apparently unfounded and illegal.”

In a statement, the monitoring group said Osipyan’s remarks, while harsh and emotionally charged, fell within the boundaries of political criticism and could not reasonably be classified as hooliganism, interference with campaigning, or public calls for violence.

“The expressions of the parties, if necessary, may be assessed exclusively within the legal framework of insult or defamation. However, they cannot reasonably be qualified as hooliganism, obstruction of campaigning, or public calls for violence.”

The observers also noted that Pashinyan himself used equally harsh, and in some cases even more aggressive, language during the confrontation, describing the exchange as a mutual emotional and political clash rather than a criminal incident.

The group further condemned what it called the prime minister’s “unacceptable” remarks directed at forcibly displaced Artsakh Armenians, warning that such rhetoric deepens polarization and inflames tensions during the election campaign.

The Independent Observer Coalition called for Osipyan’s immediate release and urged authorities to refrain from interfering with the electoral process.

The case has added to growing concerns among Armenian rights groups and election observers over escalating hate speech, intolerance, and increasingly confrontational rhetoric during the election campaign.