The son of Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan Ashot was kidnapped by the mother of a murdered soldier

Investigative Committee of the Republic revealed the details

An extraordinary event took place in Armenia yesterday: Haykakan Zhamanak, a publication owned by the country’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s family, reported on an attempt to kidnap his son Ashot by members of the Call of Sons NGO, which includes relatives of soldiers killed in the Second Karabakh War.

The incident occurred on Wednesday, May 17, around 15:00 local time. According to preliminary data, when the young man passed by the building of the Court of Appeal, a group of intruders were waiting for him, who started a verbal skirmish with him.

Then one of the women, who introduced herself as the mother of the deceased serviceman, invited Ashot to get into her car in order to talk in a calm atmosphere. As soon as he sat down, she suddenly started the car.

In the car, she told Ashot about the war and human losses. The young man noticed that the woman was driving inappropriately: exceeding the speed limit and violating the rules of the road. When asked to stop the car, she admitted that she was taking the guy to the Yerablur military cemetery, where she would decide whether to let him go or kill him.

According to the press service of the Armenian Investigative Committee, at one of the intersections, the woman was forced to slow down, and Ashot quickly opened the front right door of the car and jumped onto the roadway, and a few seconds later he was run over by a white Toyota. At the wheel of the car, according to the guy, there were people who were waiting for him near the Court of Appeal.

“Out of concern for his safety, he immediately ran into the supermarket,” the report said. As a result, Ashot Pashinyan injured his leg and went to the police.

According to Armenian media, Gayane Hakobyan is under arrest on suspicion of kidnapping. In the pre-trial detention center, she became ill and was taken to the hospital. At the same time, opposition deputies demand the immediate release of the woman. Near the police station where she was taken, there was even a scuffle between the police and civil activists.

Pro-government Armenian publications report that the organizer of the abduction could be Garik Galeyan, the father of Mkhitar Galeyan, who died in Nagorno-Karabakh. In 2022, he had already come to the attention of the police after threatening to take over a school, kindergarten or university. Later, he was detained by the police for illegal entry into the territory of one of the military units and a scuffle with the deputy commander.

The representative of the “Call of Sons” Vahid Sahakyan denied the fact of the kidnapping. “This is disinformation, which they are trying to divert the attention of society. There really was an incident, but I can’t provide details,” Sahakyan said. They insist that the guy himself got into the car, no one grabbed his hands, which means that there was no kidnapping.

In fact, a criminal case was initiated on the grounds of the article “Kidnapping of a person in relation to a person or his close relative, or a close person in connection with the performance by this person of his state, political, official, professional or social activities.”