by Davit Beglaryan
Between April and July 1994, around 800,000 Tutsis were killed in Rwanda in just 100 days. The genocide began not with machetes, but with radio broadcasts.
Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), “Free Radio Television of the Thousand Hills,” broadcast from July 1993 until July 1994. It became known as the “Genocide Radio” and the “Hutu Power Radio.”
RTLM did not speak in dry bureaucratic language. It operated in a popular style with contemporary music, especially from Zaire, laughter, jokes, and a constant “we all know” tone. Tutsis were called “cockroaches” (inyenzi), “snakes,” and “enemies of the people.” Later, the station directly broadcast the names of people to be killed, along with their home addresses and hiding places. One example:
“Go to Rugunga, the cockroaches’ huts are in the swamp there… Anyone with weapons, surround them and kill them.”
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) convicted several RTLM founders and executives for incitement to genocide. Studies have shown that at least 10 percent of all killings were directly influenced by the radio broadcasts.
Today, the same mechanism is operating in Armenia at the state level.
After the September 2023 ethnic cleansing, when more than 100,000 Armenians were forcibly displaced from Artsakh, the authorities began labeling Artsakh Armenians as “runaways.” Pashinyan publicly declared: “We spent billions so you would stay, but you ran away.” Artsakh women in the Yerevan metro were accused with statements like: “Don’t use the runaways to say I gave away Karabakh.”
And a few days ago, that language of hatred reached an unprecedented level.
On May 18, 2026, during an election campaign event in Arabkir, Nikol Pashinyan lashed out at Artsakh activist Artur Osipyan, saying:
“You should have gone and died. Why are you alive? Why didn’t you die, you scumbag?”
He continued with statements such as: “You smashed your head against the wall,” “looting animals,” “Why is Shahramanyan alive?” and “Why are your so called National Assembly members alive?”
This is no longer political argument. This is direct hatred and a death wish toward an Artsakh Armenian coming from the head of the state.
Pashinyan’s government is systematically building a system of hatred:
• Turning Artsakh Armenians into culprits for their own genocide and displacement (“runaways,” “those who did not stay”),
• Declaring the Artsakh movement and struggle a “fatal mistake” and a “failure of the state,”
• Labeling the opposition as the “party of war,” a “fifth column,” and “pro Russian traitors.”
The lesson of Rwanda was clear: hate propaganda does not respond to reality, it creates it. Dehumanization, division, normalization, activation.
In Armenia, these stages are already unfolding before our eyes.
Dehumanization: calling Artsakh Armenians “runaways” and “scumbags” who “did not die.”
Division: splitting society into “us” and “them,” into “peace lovers” and “war lovers.”
Normalization: the phrase “Why didn’t you die?” coming from the country’s leader becomes part of election campaigning.
Our history, from the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to Sumgait, Baku, and Maragha, has taught one lesson: every massacre begins with words, with the language of hatred, with labels such as “enemy” and “traitor.”
Today, that language comes from the leader of the Republic itself.
It is time to say this plainly:
We will not go to a place where Armenians from Artsakh are called “runaways” and “scumbags” inside our own state.
We will not go to a place where the country’s leader asks an Artsakh Armenian: “Why didn’t you die?”
We will not go to a place where the displaced become targets of society while the authorities portray themselves as innocent victims.
We will not go to a place where state sponsored hatred divides the Armenian people from within.
Words kill.
Our history has paid the bitterest price for that truth.
If we fail to stand against this now, “runaways” and “Why didn’t you die?” can become the beginning of another tragedy, this time from within our own nation.
