Pashinian was approached by Artur Osipian as he campaigned in the city’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.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian shouts threats against his critics during an election campaign event in Yerevan, May 18, 2026.
Osipian, who denies the accusations, went on hunger strike to protest against his arrest and demand an apology from Pashinian. He is continuing to refuse food at Yerevan’s Nubarashen prison. Armenia’s chief prison medic, Kamo Manukian, has refused to comment on his health condition, citing privacy grounds.
“He is very emaciated, having lost a lot of weight,” Osipian’s lawyer, Davit Hovannisian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Osipian’s arrest has been condemned by opposition groups and more than a dozen Western-funded Armenian civic organizations. In a joint statement issued late last month, they said he is prosecuted on “illegal, baseless and politically motivated” charges and demanded his immediate release.
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 manhandling her, linking her to the leaders of Armenia’s three main opposition groups and pledging to “take them out”. Law-enforcement authorities refused to launch a criminal investigation into his threats.
