Pashinyan accuses opposition voters of creating war threat, offers no evidence

(Horizon Media / YEREVAN) — Nikol Pashinyan has sharply escalated his rhetoric against citizens who voted for opposition forces in Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections, accusing them, without evidence, of helping create a threat of war.

Speaking about the June 14 meeting in Dilijan between Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan and Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev, Pashinyan claimed the meeting was necessary to “manage” a threat allegedly created by the election results.

According to Pashinyan, the outside world could form the impression that some 500,000 Armenian citizens support reviving the Artsakh movement, returning to Karabakh, revising the peace agreement, or pursuing a “sea-to-sea Armenia.” He warned that such a perception could quickly undermine peace.

He then dismissed opposition votes as the result of vote-buying, allegedly carried out with the help of foreign forces interested in destabilizing the region.

The remarks represent a sweeping attempt to vilify opposition voters and portray citizens who exercised their democratic right as a security risk. Pashinyan offered no evidence to support claims of mass vote-buying or foreign involvement behind the opposition vote.

His comments are also striking because Armenia’s main opposition forces have not campaigned on promises to retake Artsakh by force, revise the peace process through military means, or pursue maximalist territorial ambitions.

Rather than addressing the political message sent by opposition voters, Pashinyan chose to discredit them as bribed, manipulated and dangerous. By linking electoral dissent to the threat of renewed war, the “prime minister” has further deepened Armenia’s domestic polarization at a highly sensitive moment.