The court sent Artak Avetisyan to pretrial detention.

A Yerevan court has remanded blogger Artak Avetisyan in custody for one month. He called Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan a "traitor" during his campaign rally.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," blogger Artak Avetisyan, who called Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan a "traitor" during his campaign in Yerevan's Shengavit district, was detained and charged with inciting hatred. Security forces searched his home, and investigators requested Avetisyan's arrest.

The Kentron District Court of Yerevan remanded blogger Artak Avetisyan in custody late in the evening of May 14. Avetisyan has been arrested for one month, his lawyer, Ruben Melikyan, announced on his Facebook page*.

Avetisyan was charged with inciting hatred based on a roughly one-and-a-half-minute video he posted on social media on May 12. The blogger filmed himself and his thoughts while walking down the street.

In the video, Artak Avetisyan expresses his views within the bounds of permitted political criticism, without resorting to hate speech or inciting hatred, insists Ruben Melikyan. The lawyer invited his followers to evaluate the video for "incitement to hatred," and most of the commenters agreed that the blogger expressed his opinion in an acceptable manner.

Armenia's parliamentary elections will be held on June 7, with 17 parties and two blocs eligible to participate. Samvel Karapetyan's "Strong Armenia," along with Robert Kocharyan's "Armenia" bloc and Gagik Tsarukyan's "Prosperous Armenia" party, is one of the most pro-Russian parties in the Armenian parliamentary elections. The Kremlin is backing Karapetyan, but he is legally ineligible to participate, Armenian political scientists previously noted.

The "Caucasian Knot" has prepared a report titled "2026 Elections to the National Assembly (Parliament) of Armenia."