Doctor who argued with Pashinyan dismissed

PanARMENIAN.Net - Arpine Soghoyan, an obstetrician-gynecologist and candidate of medical sciences who argued with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during the election campaign in Yerevan's Arabkir district, has been dismissed from her job. The announcement was made by her daughter, Tatevik Soghoyan, in a Facebook post.

According to the post, Soghoyan was informed that her employment was being terminated because her position had been eliminated as part of staff reductions, with the medical institution citing a lack of funding.

“After 21 years of impeccable work at a Yerevan polyclinic, it was decided to dismiss my mother because her position was being abolished. In other words, the polyclinic will continue to have a women's consultation department, but it will no longer have a department head. Thousands of women in an entire administrative district, including expectant mothers, will be left without the supervision of a highly experienced department chief.

“The explanation that there is no money becomes even more difficult to understand when compared with the billions of drams spent by the community on celebrations. I will address that later.

“For now, I will only say that dismissing my mother under the pretext of staff cuts is the clearest indication of her conscientious work and yet another example of the ‘bastion of democracy’ that claims to protect freedom of speech,” the post reads.

During the election campaign, Sogoyan approached the prime minister and accused him of “stealing” her homeland and “destroying an entire generation.” Her brother is Lieutenant Colonel and military doctor Hrant Papikyan, who went missing during the 2020 44-day war. She told Pashinyan: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to look you in the eyes and tell you that you stole my homeland. You destroyed an entire young generation of my nation. You stole my children, you stole my brother. You stole my joy.” Pashinyan responded in a raised voice: “If you are Rob’s people, we will crush you. I will destroy Rob and the Kaluga man as well.”