By Andranik Aboyan
In a twist of fate worthy of a sitcom, a 71-year-old Yerevan resident, Albert Arustamyan, now finds himself in hot water—potentially up to two years’ worth—after flinging an apple at Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. This daring fruit-based protest took place on Friday evening as Pashinyan was heading to meet a relative in the city’s charmingly mundane Zeytun district.
The apple, a tool of rebellion apparently as potent as a grenade, missed its intended target completely—neither Pashinyan nor his entourage were hit. Local children, clearly well-versed in the art of exaggeration, claimed that the security team ducked to the ground, convinced they were under attack.
Arustamyan’s lawyer, Roman Yeritsyan, took to Facebook to express his dismay, noting that the prime minister and his bodyguards seemed to mistake a piece of fruit for a high-grade explosive. Meanwhile, Arustamyan’s entire family was rounded up for questioning, proving that in Yerevan, even a fruit throw can become a family affair.
The retired rebel from Artsakh now faces charges of hooliganism—an offense that, for an apple-throwing enthusiast, could result in hefty fines or a two-year prison sentence. Yeritsyan, ever the defender of the beleaguered fruit-thrower, argues that the charge is less about the apple and more about the VIP target.
“Had the apple hit an ordinary citizen, we might be discussing this over coffee instead of a courtroom,” Yeritsyan quipped to Radio Free Armenia. He pointed out that the political elite seem to enjoy a different set of rules, referencing a previous incident where Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan spat at a heckler without facing similar scrutiny.
Adding to the absurdity, just days after this apple incident, a woman who threw her umbrella at Pashinyan during a visit to a village received a suspended two-year prison sentence. The court even ruled that the umbrella be confiscated and destroyed—proof that in Armenia, umbrellas are held more accountable than Civil Contract parliamentarians.
