Artsakh Refugees Targeted with Dehumanizing Rhetoric During Election Campaign

In September 2023, Azerbaijan’s military operations forced the complete ethnic cleansing of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), displacing more than 150,000 Armenian inhabitants who had lived there for centuries. These displaced Armenians arrived in Armenia as refugees, losing homes, businesses, social networks, and civic standing. Nearly three years later, during the 2026 parliamentary election campaign, these same refugees have become targets of systematic dehumanization by the ruling Civil Contract party and Pashinyan himself.

Pashinyan has repeatedly deployed terms such as “pseudo-elites of Artsakh” and “runaways,” framing the displacement through a narrative of cowardice: soldiers died while Artsakhtsis “ran away.” Rafael Ishkhanyan identifies this rhetoric as classical hate speech targeting a vulnerable group defined by geographic origin and shared trauma. The language is particularly damaging because it falsely conflates a displaced refugee population with political elites allegedly responsible for the war. Civil Contract officials have repeated this framing in public debates and campaign speeches, amplifying the stigmatization.

The political value is multifaceted: the rhetoric aims to discourage Artsakh refugees from voting by making them feel unwelcome, while simultaneously mobilizing fear-based voting among the broader Armenian population through an appeal to prejudice. The government has slowed the naturalization process for Artsakh refugees seeking Armenian citizenship, leaving thousands unable to vote. Simultaneously, it announced a debt-forgiveness program for Artsakh people, a pattern Ishkhanyan describes as “punching first, then offering candy,” designed to manipulate a terrified and economically vulnerable constituency. Schools have documented incidents of Artsakh children being called Turks or Azerbaijanis by peers, a real-world consequence of elite-level dehumanization.