Pashinyan Faces Backlash Over Subway Incident With Displaced Artsakh Woman

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Armine Mosiyan, an Armenian from Nagorno-Karabakh and the daughter of Meruzhan Mosiyan, during a heated discussion on the Yerevan Metro.

As debate over the detention of an Artsakh woman for a Facebook post continues in Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has faced criticism over a separate incident involving a woman forcibly displaced from Artsakh during a campaign stop on the Yerevan subway. Video from the event shows Pashinyan becoming visibly agitated after the woman declined to participate in his campaign activity. When he offered her child a badge depicting a map of Armenia, she refused, stating: “We are from Artsakh — we have a different map.”

Pashinyan responded by pointing at the woman and saying, “We did everything for you to live in Artsakh. In 2023, you accused me of closing the borders. We spent billions so you could stay there — but you ran away. Why didn’t you stay?” His remarks were interpreted by critics as a direct մեղադրանք [meghadrank] (accusation) toward displaced residents.

The woman addressed in the exchange is Armine Mosiyan, a forcibly displaced mother of three, holding one of her children during the incident. Her father, Meruzhan Mosiyan, served as commander of the 26th Motorized Rifle Battalion of Martuni and was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Artsakh Central Committee. He was posthumously awarded the First Degree Battle Cross for his service.

The footage circulated widely on social media. In the video, Mosiyan can be heard saying, “Stop, I am with my child,” while the prime minister continues speaking in an elevated tone and insists on his account of events, referring to what he described as a “parallel reality.”

Armenians from Artsakh, who experienced էթնիկ զտում [etnik ztum] (ethnic cleansing) and forced տեղահանություն [teghahanutyun] (displacement) in 2023, were referenced in the exchange in a way that some interpreted as attributing responsibility for leaving their homes. Critics argue that presenting the departure as a matter of individual decision rather than coercion aligns with narratives promoted by Azerbaijan regarding the events in Artsakh.