Hateful rhetoric of leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia against Artsakh  Armenians identical - expert

ArmInfo. It is shameful to realize that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's words of hatred and discrimination against the Armenians of Artsakh are no different from the rhetoric of Azerbaijani dictator President Ilham Aliyev, who unleashed a war against Artsakh, imposed a blockade, and  carried out ethnic cleansing.

This was stated by Azerbaijani scholar Tatevik Hayrapetyan, responding to an incident in the Yerevan metro, where the Armenian prime minister threatened Armine Mosyan, the daughter of field commander Meruzhan Mosyan, who died in the Artsakh Liberation War of 1993, in front of her young child, for refusing to accept a pin from a map of the so-called "real Armenia." 

In this regard, Hayrapetyan recalled a statement made by Azerbaijani  President Ilham Aliyev on November 8, 2023, in a square in occupied  Stepanakert: "The ungrateful people who ate Azerbaijani bread and  water raised territorial claims against us in this square." The  expert also presented an excerpt from Pashinyan's accusations against  an Artsakh refugee: "We spent billions earned by Armenian citizens so  that you would remain there. You, who fled, don't try to claim that I  surrendered Karabakh."

"I just want to say that I feel immense pain and shame because  Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's words of hatred and  discrimination against the Armenians of Artsakh are identical to the  hateful words of Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev, who unleashed a  war against Artsakh, blockaded the Artsakh people, and carried out  ethnic cleansing. This is truly shameful. Dear Armenians of Artsakh,  forgive us, all citizens of Armenia, for allowing this situation to  happen. I cannot even imagine how difficult this must be for you,"  Hayrapetyan wrote on her Facebook page.

On March 22, the Armenian Prime Minister, who is in his third week of  campaigning for the upcoming parliamentary elections, descended onto  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  hand one of these badges to a woman with a child. However, the  child's mother, after thanking him, declined, noting that she was  from Artsakh and that she understood Armenia to have different  borders. This response infuriated Pashinyan, who began yelling at the  woman, waving his finger, and threatening her, accusing the people of  Artsakh of fleeing their homes.

All the woman's requests to speak to her without raising his voice  were unsuccessful. This behavior by Pashinyan sparked outrage in  Armenian society. Amid public criticism, a few hours later, the  Armenian prime minister allegedly attempted to apologize to the woman  live on air 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.