Arpine Soghoyan sparked a shouting match with Pashinian when she approached him during his campaign tour of the city’s northern Arabkir district on May 18. Soghoyan blamed him for the fact that her brother, senior military medic Hrant Papikian, went missing during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“You have wiped out a whole young generation,” she added, referring to thousands of Armenian soldiers killed during the six-week war. “You have stolen my brother, my joy. You’ve tried to bring us to our knees. But we haven’t gotten on our knees.”
Pashinian responded by manhandling her, linking her to the leaders of Armenia’s three main opposition groups and pledging to “take out” them. He also furiously rejected her claim that he has “ruined the country.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian argues with Arpine Soghoyan, Yerevan, May 18, 2026.
Pashinian also lost his temper that day after being confronted by other Arabkir residents. One of them, exiled Karabakh Armenian activist Artur Osipian was arrested and charged with obstructing Pashinian’s election campaign and calling for a violent attack on the premier hours later. Osipian was released from jail after a 23-day hunger strike.
Despite initial reports that Soghoyan is being pressured to resign as head of the policlinic’s gynecology section, Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinian insisted at the time that she will not be fired because of her political views.
Nevertheless, the experienced gynecologist received on Monday a letter from the policlinic director, Vartan Hakobian, notifying her that her position has been abolished. Hakobian refused to comment when contacted by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
A spokesperson for the Yerevan mayor’s office, which oversees the municipal policlinics, claimed, meanwhile, that Soghoyan’s dismissal is part of ongoing cost-cutting layoffs necessitated by the recent introduction of a national health insurance system. Soghoyan brushed aside the claim, saying that policlinic medics’ workload has only increased in recent months because of that.
The layoff letter also informed Soghoyan that she will not be offered an alternative job due to what it described as her poor health, rather than a lack of public funding. The doctor denied having any health issues, saying that she has never called in sick during her 21-year work at the primary healthcare facility. She said she was simply pushed out because of the incident with Pashinian and her pro-opposition views.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian shouts threats against his critics during an election campaign event in Yerevan, May 18, 2026.
Soghoyan’s removal is the latest in a series of sackings of Pashinian’s critics or their relatives working in the public sector, which followed last month’s disputed parliamentary elections. They include Lilit Ghazarian, the sister of an outspoken opposition figure who ran for the Armenian parliament. Ghazarian was laid off late last month after serving as deputy head of the Armenian government’s drug regulatory agency for 22 years.
Also losing his job was Ruben Melikian, a prominent lawyer and government critic who has represented many arrested oppositionists. Melikian was notified last week that he will no longer be teaching law at Yerevan State University (YSU).
On June 29, a state college in the town of Armavir sacked its administrator and lecturer Hayastan Hakobian who also ran in the June 7 elections as a candidate of the main opposition Strong Armenia alliance. Hakobian pledged to challenge her dismissal in court, saying that she was punished for her political views.
Soghoyan also vowed such legal action while insisting that she is not particularly upset by the loss of her longtime job.
“If it weren’t for the events of 2020, I might have taken it harder,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But now that part of me has been numbed by the loss of my homeland.”
