Artsakh Armenians face discrimination and hate speech in Armenia
“End this Artsakh-phobic propaganda, or it may lead to fratricide.” This warning came from Tatevik Khachatryan, a member of the Council for the Protection of Rights of Artsakh Armenians, who stood firm among protesters outside the office of Armenia’s Prosecutor General on April 14. Khachatryan held a thick dossier: a compilation of hate speech targeting Armenians who fled Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan’s 2023 military attack and consequent ethnic cleansing.
The protesters issued a formal complaint demanding action against what they call systematic discrimination. The documents detail how forcibly displaced Armenians, already in a vulnerable situation, now face verbal attacks and dehumanizing rhetoric in Armenia, a country that was supposed to be their safe refuge.
Hate speech and discrimination against Artsakh Armenians are not new, but they have intensified since a mass rally of more than 10,000 people from Artsakh and Armenia took place on March 29. This rhetoric comes not just from social media users but also from government officials and members of parliament affiliated with the ruling Civil Contract Party.
One such remark was made by MP Khachatur Sukiasyan, who told a 24News reporter, “Artsakh Armenians didn’t fight during 2023. Just around 10 people died,” in an attempt to justify similar comments made by parliament speaker Alen Simonyan two months prior. Another MP, Arsen Torosyan, wrote on social media that Armenia “sacrificed its best” for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, who are now “trying to destroy Armenia, as they did with Artsakh.” His post effectively blamed victims for the loss of their homeland and for potential future conflicts.
Taron Chakhoyan, the prime minister’s chief of staff, described Artsakh refugees as “cannon fodder” being exploited by opposition groups. When challenged about such statements, government representatives often defend rather than condemn them. MP Maria Karapetyan, for instance, appeared on Factor TV and attempted to justify Chakhoyan’s remarks rather than acknowledging their harmful impact.
Several media outlets with close ties to the government—such as Civic.am, MediaNews and Khosnak—regularly publish content that portrays Artsakh Armenians negatively and spreads anti-Artsakh sentiment.
The narrative typically follows a predictable pattern:first claiming that “Artsakhis should have stayed and fought,” followed by accusations of ingratitude and suggestions that the Armenian state has no obligations toward them. Some posts go to extremes, such as blaming Artsakh Armenians for the 1988 Spitak earthquake. The identical wording across multiple profiles suggests coordinated messaging.
For displaced families, this rhetoric only compounds their daily struggles. Many face job and housing insecurity as well as verbal abuse in public spaces. “The authorities not only fail to condemn such speech but sometimes participate in it,” Khachatryan said during the demonstration. “This creates a dangerous environment for people who’ve already lost everything.”
Despite provisions in Armenia’s criminal code against hate speech, prosecutors have yet to pursue any cases related to anti-Artsakh rhetoric. The Council’s complaint includes evidence of systematic targeting of this vulnerable population, whose fundamental rights—including freedom of speech, information and assembly—are increasingly threatened. As Khachatryan concluded her statement, she reminded officials that displaced Artsakh Armenians are citizens with equal rights. “We survived ethnic cleansing once,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to face discrimination in our homeland.”
This climate of institutionalized discrimination and official inaction has not only eroded trust in state protections but has also affected public discourse. The consequences were especially visible during a nationally televised interview last week between journalist Petros Ghazaryan and Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan. Many Armenians were shocked by Ghazaryan’s aggressive tone and his accusation that Artsakh Armenians are provoking war by advocating for their basic rights. Stepanyan remained composed, keeping his focus on the importance of including legitimate representatives of Artsakh in both domestic and international discussions about their future.
Throughout the interview, Ghazaryan repeatedly blamed Artsakh Armenians for making political demands, implying that they had no right to do so. Stepanyan responded by noting that Armenia’s constitution guarantees every person living in Armenia the right to express their demands and participate in civic life. He added that Armenia holds a direct obligation to protect the rights of Artsakh Armenians, especially as they are now citizens and residents of the country. Ghazaryan ended the broadcast by saying, “You don’t understand that first we must solve Armenia’s issues, and only then yours,” making it clear that, in his view, the concerns of Artsakh Armenians are secondary.
“Hate speech and interethnic hostility have intensified, with our monitoring revealing systematic proliferation through political processes designed to accuse Artsakh Armenians of harboring political agendas,” Stepanyan stated in an interview with the Weekly. “While hate speech persists globally, Armenia’s authorities are uniquely culpable for making it mainstream. Instead of acting as guardians of national unity and punishing perpetrators, they’ve become amplifiers of division,” he continued.
Stepanyan stressed the necessity of evidence-based legal action through formal complaints to investigative bodies, while acknowledging the complexity of such a process.
Aramayis Agabekyan, director of the Artsakh Speaks news agency and Power of Thought NGO, has detailed concrete measures against outlets like Khosnak, which circulated videos framing Artsakh refugees as “disloyal opportunists.” Armenia’s Media Ethics Observatory has condemned such content as a “manifestation of discrimination against Artsakh residents” that “disseminates hatred and intolerance, discrimination on political, geographic grounds, as well as hate speech.”
“We’ve escalated complaints to the Prosecutor’s Office and Investigative Committee. If they suppress these cases, we’ll expose the direct links between these media entities and power structures,” said Agabekyan. He asserted that such outlets operate not as independent voices but as extensions of political interests—entities that must be held publicly accountable.
Amid rising discrimination and hate speech, numerous media organizations and public figures have issued open letters urging media outlets to uphold ethical standards, reject hate-driven narratives and protect the dignity of Artsakh Armenians.
Stepanyan underscored the critical role of cultural leaders and public figures, calling on them to use their platforms to foster tolerance through advocacy campaigns and inclusive public messaging. In response to the hostile climate, many Armenians have publicly apologized to Artsakh Armenians for the actions of their compatriots and have expressed solidarity. Social media has seen an outpouring of support from Armenians ashamed of the hate campaign, offering reassurance to Artsakh Armenians that they are not alone.
Siranush Sargsyan
When members of this traitorous Civil Contract ruling party utter such nonsense about Artsakh Armenians it is as if they are coming from our despicable enemy officials from artificial Azerbaijan republic. After all, when a change of government took place in Armenia under the disguise of that fake “velvet revolution” and when true revolutions are supposed to bring positive change to a society but instead bring misery upon the society and benefit and serve only the interests of our Turkish and pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijani enemies, then there can not be and there should not be any doubt in the minds of all patriotic Armenians whose interests traitorous Civil Contract ruling party serves.
Pashinyan the head of this traitor bunch seizes power by a staged regime change facilitated by his foreign sponsors goes to Artsakh soon after becoming prime minister and declares Artsakh as Armenia right in front of our enemies after over two decades of “peace” negotiations with our former strong and patriotic leaders giving our enemies, this time Turkey as well as Azerbaijan, the green light to attack. Having been disgraced and labeled as traitor he then cozies up to our enemies and under pressure from them and from deceitful Europeans he now declares Artsakh as Azerbaijan further emboldening the enemy to place full blockade on Artsakh, detaching it and cutting off its lifeline from Armenia, in attempts to starve Artsakh population and to force into capitulation the Artsakh leadership just like he Pashinyan himself capitulated a few years earlier. As the security guarantor of Artsakh this traitor instead of helping Artsakh instead washes his hands off Artsakh altogether placing their destiny in the hands of our genocidal enemies and now claiming Artsakh Armenians themselves were responsible for their ethnic-cleansing.
Today, he is denying them their rights, treating them as outsiders inline with our enemy false narratives, denying them citizenship hence denying them the right to vote, against him for sure, in upcoming elections. This is a strategy by these traitors in attempts to absolve themselves of any wrongdoings to save their own skins. They know their end is near. I look forward to the day when these traitors are made to pay for their sins under the full extent of the law and crime of treason and be replaced by a true and patriotic Armenian leadership who will restore the Armenian pride and dignity sold by these traitors and put the fear of God in the hearts of our enemies once again like they did in the past!
Dear Ararat from wording of your vocabulary, one can make some painful conclusions, there is first there is no consensuses in Armenian society, as you complain about hateful atmosphere of Armenia and within the Armenian diaspora societies , yourself are using the same hateful vocabulary ( Armenian weekly, performs the same hate speeches ). Dear Ararat your comments does not help Armenian to become an self-aware , intelligent and civilized society, capable of resisting to challenges ( do you remember during 44 days war , rumours going in frontline telling our heroic ordinary young soldiers, that they have sold us to our enemy ).you are disregarding 52% of registered Armenian decision and their choices in electing the first democratically elected government, and you are calling the hateful destruction of democratically elected government , that is the first step toward destruction of Armenian statehood. Should I remind you on 30th of March ( 3 week ago) an administrative regime came to power in Gyumri, which was made up of Kocharyan, Dashnanak party, Sarkisyan Party plus Communist and do you know what was their first declaration , here I remind you and Armenian weekly. ” Armenia should join Belorussia, Russia as new member of old Soviet union “
I think your criticism is totally misplaced. What I said about this Civil Contract ruling party is not hate speech, it is facts. These traitors should be behind bars. To call these people democratic is an insult to the idea of democracy. They refuse to fight the enemy at the border while attacking peaceful demonstrators with deadly weapons and denigrating the loved ones of our martyred soldiers in mourning. They are “democratically” giving everything away to our enemies piece by piece. Given our enemy’s recent past dealings with us which ended in their humiliating defeat, even they are in shock what this incompetent traitor in office is doing. He practically gave away everything to the enemy without even firing a shot! How can anyone even remotely defend these people is beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. They have sold us out to our enemies. By their destructive policies they are showing their true colors. They don’t care about anything we hold dear in our hearts. Nothing is sacred to them. Everything is a business transaction. How can anyone say and claim that there is nothing Armenian beyond the current boundaries of Armenia and get away with it? For these traitors, our past, both recent and ancient, belongs in the past and it is nothing but a footnote in history.
Their foreign policy towards our enemies, a bunch of wolves in sheep’s clothing, is like a farmer who thinks by sacrificing a few of his herd he can save the rest not realizing that it is in wolf’s DNA to kill the entire herd even if one can satisfy its hunger. You can’t change the behavior of this blood-thirsty animal. But what you can do is to prepare yourself using all means possible, set traps and inflict massive and irreversible losses, until this blood-thirsty creature realizes there is a heavy price to pay for every transgression that can ultimately put its own survival in danger. To do that requires a true Armenian patriot in charge of the country who won’t spare anything, won’t leave any stone unturned, to defend the country and protect the nation against any enemy attack. What good is democracy, a fake one at that, when you have nothing left and have submitted yourself to every enemy demand because you are incompetent and dysfunctional yet you won’t resign to let someone else do what needs to be done because we had already done it and have the blue-print on how to do it and how to handle this despicable enemy. They claim they came to power by a popular so-called “velvet revolution”, nothing but a regime change in reality, and therefore they are given a mandate by the people to do as they see fit. Even by giving them the benefit of the doubt, a revolution is supposed to bring positive change to a society but it has brought nothing but misery to the nation instead. After all, how could a fake “revolution” bring any positive change to our nation when the only beneficiaries of their treasonous acts have been our enemies? They are a disgrace to our nation!
Finding true patriots to be leaders is difficult in the era of the WEF and globalisation even for an insular nation with a strong sense of national identity such as Armenia . Nevertheless Armenia now the Kremlin tie in has diminshed has been procuring weapons from friendly powers; France , Greece, India which opposed by Russia and Azerbaijan and after all it was during the era of strategic partnership with Russia that Armenia national assets were sold to Russia and
it’s military hegemony slipped away…
Sadly the grim reality that Armenia through a mix of poor decisions and lack of foreign support and hostile Azerbaijan being able to call upon more resources was able to reverse it’s defeat in 2020 . The other hard truth is despite a reality check and decline in the infatuation with Russia that Armenia is in a vulnerable position, Azerbaijan is simply much more powerful nowadays and he who has the power plays the tricks, clearly Azerbaijan is bamboozling Armenia and Pashinyan trying to assauge, but the reality is whoever leads Armenia is going to find a difficult situation of being dominated by a powerful adversary even if no longer beholden to Russia as before who it seems is going to have to settle for a ceasefire with Ukraine akin to Armenia 1994 ceasefire with Azerbaijan in character.