Pashinyan loses temper in parliament after being accused of not holding allies accountable for corruption

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has lost his temper in parliament after being accused of lacking the ‘political will’ to hold his team accountable for reports of corruption. In response, he shouted at opposition MPs, saying ‘We would have hanged you and deported you from Armenia altogether’ if his government made decisions based on media reports.

The incident took place on Wednesday at the parliament, during the question and answer session with the government.

Pashinyan said that the opposition was being accused of being ‘foreign spies’ by the media.

‘What are you even doing sitting in this hall? If I were to act based on press publications, I’d have to drag all of you and throw you into the basement of the National Security Service (NSS)’, Pashinyan said.

In response, an opposition MP said that Pashinyan ‘should be the first to go [to the NSS’ basement], to which Pashinyan replied with the same words, only adding ‘and you will go’.

Following this, the tension further flared in the parliament, with Pashinyan urging opposition MPs ‘sit down and shut up’.

As the MPs continued to argue and yell at each other, Pashinyan addressed the head of the opposition Armenia Alliance faction, Seyran Ohanyan, saying that he embodied ‘corruption from head to toe’ before further insulting other opposition MPs.

Following the argument, the MPs of the Armenia Alliance left the session.

Later, in response to another question, Pashinyan commented on the incident saying: ‘Who even are these two forces to come and accuse us of corruption?’, in reference to the two opposition factions in parliament.

‘If we went by media publications, 70% of them should be in prison now. But aren’t we trying to build a legal state?’

During the argument, Pashinyan was seen making a gesture with his thumb around his neck, described by critics online as a cutthroat gesture. However, Pashinyan’s family-owned media outlet, ArmTimes, published a news article saying that Pashinyan was saying and gesturing that he had ‘had it up to here’ with the opposition.

They further noted that it could be confirmed even by the opposition MPs present there.

On Thursday, Parliamentary Speaker Alen Simonyan commented on the incident, saying that he believed the opposition ‘should apologise’ for the incident, accusing them of building up tension.

The incident follows the creation of the We Are Awake movement, which seeks to push MPs — opposition and ruling Civil Contract members included — to impeach Pashinyan and his government.

Armenian opposition leaders Kocharyan and Sargsyan split over Pashinyan impeachment

In late April, the We Are Awake movement submitted letters to all MPs urging them to launch impeachment proceedings against Pashinyan.

OC MediaArshaluys Barseghyan