Armenian society reacts to premier`s strong-worded conversation with  woman from Nagorno-Karabakh

ArmInfo.  Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's threats against Armine Mosyan, the daughter of field commander Meruzhan Mosyan, who died in the Artsakh Liberation War in 1993 and was posthumously awarded the First Degree Combat Cross, have sparked outrage in Armenian society.

On March 22, the Armenian Prime Minister, now in his third week of  campaigning for the upcoming parliamentary elections, descended into  the Yerevan metro. There, he distributed badges with a map of the  so-called "real Armenia." In one of the subway cars, he attempted to  give one to a woman with a child.  However, the child's mother, after  thanking him, declined, noting that she was from Artsakh and that she  believed Armenia had different borders. This response infuriated  Pashinyan, who began yelling at the woman, waving his finger, and  threatening her, all the while accusing the people of Artsakh of  fleeing their homes.

All the woman's requests to speak to her without raising his voice  were unsuccessful. Pashinyan's behavior sparked outrage in Armenian  society. Amid public criticism, a few hours later, the Armenian prime  minister allegedly attempted to apologize to the woman on live  television for his behavior. However, instead of apologizing, he  began threatening Armenian society that if his political party was  not elected, the country would face a new war in the fall.

Reacting to Pashinyan's actions, Narek Karapetyan, a member of the  board of the Strong Armenia party, called such behavior toward a  woman unacceptable in Armenia. "Anyone who talks to an Armenian  mother and shakes his finger at her in the presence of her son should  not be our prime minister. No, and that's it," Karapetyan remarked.

In turn, Artsakh Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan, in response to the  incident, noted that the incident in the metro was a complete  exposure of the rhetoric of "brothers and sisters from Artsakh":  when, on the one hand, an imitation of concern was created, and on  the other, displaced persons were systematically persecuted and  labeled: for their opinions, feelings, pain and dignity. "Of course,  it's never been a secret who stands at the top of this pyramid of  hatred, with their real or fake pages, controlled media platforms,  and the inaction of law enforcement agencies regarding all of this.  From a human rights perspective, there's too much to say here. But  even after all that's been said, a heavy silence remains: because  when human pain is not acknowledged, when a fierce and immoral  struggle is waged against human memory and natural aspirations, words  often lose their power. For hundreds of thousands of people living in  Armenia, the displaced persons of Artsakh are true sisters and  brothers, and they don't repeat this several times a day with a  limited agenda, but demonstrate it with their attitude.

This map is the map of us all. We must not turn it into a tool of  manipulation. But in the hearts and aspirations of people, there is  another map-not an illusion, but a natural and just desire to return  to the place, to the homeland, where they were born, lived, and  created," Stepanyan wrote on his Facebook page. It is noteworthy  that, amid a wave of indignation among citizens, public figures, and  political figures, pro-government media and fake news began to fuel a  wave of hatred against the woman who dared to shield her child from  Pashinyan's actions.