Kocharyan's office hits back at Pashinyan

Bagrat Mikoyan, the head of former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan’s office, has struck back Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

In a social media post on Friday, he suggested that Pashinyan take part in a live broadcast challenge in which he would, without assistance, eat 42 pieces of perashki (a type of fried stuffed pastry) along with six meters of sweet sujukh (a traditional Armenian sweet made with walnuts and grape must).

“If he succeeds, it will demonstrate his strength. I believe he can do it,” Mikoyan said.

Earlier on Friday, Pashinyan called on Kocharyan, as well as businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan and former MP Gagik Tsarukyan, to correctly spell the Armenian word for “ignore” («արհամարհել») live on air without assistance.

However, local media reports later indicated that Pashinyan himself had misspelled the word.