On 9 June, Armenia’s Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan accused the country’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his political opponents of resorting to inflammatory rhetoric in their election campaigns, saying that could deepen a political crisis in the country.

Tatoyan singled out Pashinian’s pledges to “purge” the state bureaucracy and wage “political vendettas” against local government officials supporting the Armenian opposition. Particularly, Pashinyan promised a tough crackdown on heads of local communities and private entities who he claimed are forcing their subordinates to attend campaign rallies held by his political opponents. He also said that there would be staff purges targeted at those officials who took advantage of the 2018 revolution.

The Armenian Ombudsman also urged the election contenders to stop exploiting the issue of Armenian prisoners of war (PoW) held in Azerbaijan. Examples of such rhetoric included Pashinyan’s statement that he was ready to give his son in exchange for all Armenian soldiers. Pashinyan emphasised that the PoWs were essentially fighting for the independence and sovereignty of Armenia. Therefore, in his opinion, these people would forgive him for being in captivity for another month or two, but they would not forgive him if the authorities give up the country’s independence for the sake of their freedom.

The leader of the Republican Party Serzh Sargsyan responded to these statements of Pashinyan by asking why Pashinyan has not already traded his son in exchange for 20-25 soldiers held in Azerbaijan. Pashinyan responded by saying: “I agree. I officially declare to [Azerbaijan’s President] Ilham Aliyev: I offer my son in exchange for all the prisoners. And I authorize Serzhik [Serzh Sargsyan] and Robik [the leader of the “Armenia alliance” Robert Kocharyan] as specialists in human trafficking to negotiate this issue. If you make a few thousand dollars from it, I think your feeder will be fine with it.”

Tatoyan was not the only party who expressed concern over the inflammatory election rhetoric in Armenia, as the international non-governmental organisation Freedom House also issued a statement in that regard. The Freedom House said it was concerned with the disturbing outbreak of violent and hateful rhetoric used by Armenian politicians in the election period, saying “these actions drive destructive polarization and hate speech in society as the country recovers from the Nagorno-Karabakh war and prepares for historic parliamentary elections.”

The law enforcement bodies in the country also started criminal investigations into voter bribes. In a statement it was underscored that the head and the secretary of a provincial unit of an Armenian political party running for the elections were detained in the town of Gavar in Gegharkunik region on charges of distributing food packages to voters and asking them to vote for their party in return. It was also reported that 10 representatives of the youth wing Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun were detained while staging a protest against Pashinyan in Yerevan.

In the meantime, the politicians in the country continued trading blows between each other. The “Armenia alliance” leader Robert Kocharyan stated that he had reasonable doubts that the city of Shusha was deliberately handed over to Azerbaijan during the war. “The adversary entered Shusha without [military] equipment, from [the] Hadrut [region], through the forest, in pickups; this raises doubts. Why didn't they [the Armenian forces] stop them on the way? There was such an opportunity,” he stated, adding that the whole situation came about because of one person [Pashinyan] who said “welcome” to the enemy. 

Pashinyan hit back by saying that Kocharyan sold the blood of the victims in 1998 in Karabakh against own power. He also spoke against Sargsyan by saying that in 2018 he inherited the Karabakh negotiation process under the principle “territories for nothing.”  

The leader of the Armenian National Congress Levon Ter-Petrosyan said that he has always been concerned with the Nagorno Karabakh issue. “I told Pashinyan that his first step must be to fix the heritage he received from Serzh Sargsyan,” Ter-Petrosyan stated, adding that he told him to write letter to Foreign Affairs Minister demanding to present the situation over Karabakh conflict settlement from Sargsyan’s resignation day. “After you have it, if you make the situation better it will be your honour, if you [make] a worse solution will be your shame,” Ter-Petrosyan added.  

Ter-Petrosyan also assured the voters that if his party is elected in the parliament, they would try not to make a wrong decision regarding the cooperation. “You know that my proposal to Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan has been rejected (Caucasus Watch reported), and returning to it is no longer possible,” he said, adding that he supports “coalition of solidarity.” “Although this so-called “coalition” is like a way of creating new problems for Armenia. The situation could change every six months, and we will be among the countries which change their government once a year. If there is no other way out, of course, we must try. We will try not to make a wrong decision,” Ter-Petrosyan stressed.