Haykakan Zhamanak, a newspaper owned by the family of Armenian PM Nikol Pahsinyan, writes that an attempt was made today to kidnap the prime minister’s son Ashot outside the family’s house.

The paper says the culprits belong to the Call of the Sons NGO that unites relatives of soldiers killed during the November 2020 Karabakh war.

Ashot, according to the paper, managed to jump out of the vehicle and that the kidnappers fled the scene/

Vahid Sahakyan, who represents the NGO labelled the report as misinformation.

They are just trying to divert the attention of the people. There was an incident, but I cannot give details over the phone,” Sahakyan told Sputnik Armenia.

Ashot Pashinyan, according to Haykakan Zhamanak, reported the incident to police.

In April of this year, Armenian Parliamentary Speaker Alen Simonyan, an ally of Nikol Pashinyan, claimed that unknown people attacked Ashot Pashinyan, describing it as another in a series of provocations against government officials and their relatives.

Ashot Pashinyan later denied he had been attacked. 

Update: An unnamed woman was arrested today in what's described as the attempted kidnapping of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan’s son Ashot.

The police report that the woman approached Ashot outside the Court of Appeals, presented herself as a parent of a soldier killed during the 2020 Karabakh war, and suggested that Ashot get in her car so they could talk about the war. After Ashot got in, police say she drove away, saying that they would go a little further so as not to be disturbed by other relatives of soldiers nearby. The woman said she had nothing to lose and would take Ashot to Yerevan’s Yerablur Military Cemetery and then decide to let him go or not. Ashot, according to the police, jumped out of the car when it slowed for a traffic light.

Photo: Ashot Pashinyan's FB page