Oct. 27, Armenia’s Parliament was home to a violent scene, with members physically assaulting one another and one person even throwing a chair at a colleague.
The conflict stemmed from a sexist comment that conservative politician Sargis Karapetyan made in January 2025 on his podcast channel, Erankyuni, suggesting there would be no “unsatisfied women” in Armenia under his party, Strong Armenia. This was his response to a sociologist and guest speaker who claimed that the reason why so many middle-aged Armenian women were becoming so engaged politically was because of a lack of sexual satisfaction. During the parliament meeting, a member of the opposing Civil Contract Party criticized Karapetyan for not apologizing about his sexist comment.
For the next several days, I saw clips of the scene on every social media platform that I use. Every video that I saw had little context or explanation as to why the politicians were fighting, and the comments were filled with angry Armenians.
Most of these Armenians were not angry over the dysfunctional state of our government. Instead, they were angry that news agencies were so quick to post about the parliament brawl, but nowhere near as hasty or successful in reporting on the Nagorno-Karabakh — Artsakh in Armenian — conflict, which resurfaced in 2020, and again in 2023. The Artsakh conflict was a territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. By Jan. 1, 2024, there was complete transfer of power of the region to Azerbaijan and the expulsion of around 120,000 Armenians from their land.
One of the most popular videos of the brawl was posted on CNN’s Instagram, totaling more than 190k likes, 150k shares and more than 7000 comments.
The top comment on the video said “CNN, where was this level of attention when over 100,000 Indigenous Armenians were forcibly displaced from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), following months of blockade and humanitarian suffering? Armenia deserves more than sensational headlines about parliamentary disputes. The international media must give human rights violations, displacement and accountability the sustained attention they deserve.”
While the fight itself is significant, and shows the corruption and misogyny that exist in Armenian politics, its coverage shows a bigger issue regarding how the public chooses to consume journalism.
News outlets did not fail to cover the story of the war. CNN covered a story on the war in 2020 the same day that the war began and consistently published updates. The same goes for other outlets.
The issue was that the public chose to not learn much from what they were seeing. The information was out there, yet people did not know or care, leading to a lack of circulation and making it seem as though the news was not being offered.
During and after the Artsakh war, when I brought up the conflict in conversations with someone who was not Armenian, they would almost always tell me they had not heard anything about it, or that they had heard about it, but did not really know what was happening.
Reuters Institute’s 2025 annual Digital NewsReport found that 40 percent of people worldwide choose to avoid the news, with 42 percent specifically in the U.S. The top reason why people do this is because they say the news has a negative impact on their emotions, followed by being worn out by the amount of news.
A 2023 Reuters Institute study found that Americans tend to avoid news regarding national politics and human rights, which would include territorial disputes like the Artsakh war. The Pew Research Center published a study in 2024 that revealed that 43 percent of Americans were following the Israel-Palestine conflict “not too or not at all closely.”
All of these conflicts regarding territorial disputes show that there is a lack of attention and care to keeping up with what is happening around the world.
Whenever there is a more complicated and nuanced political issue happening that requires more research to understand, readers become apathetic. It is almost as if they want someone else to make the decision for them so they can follow along.
When talking to people about the Artsakh conflict, there are two classic responses. One is “I just want peace on both sides,” and the other is “I’m not educated on this enough to say more.”
At the end of 2020, there were several celebrities and influencers who originally posted content raising awareness on the issue and showing their clear support for Armenia, the country that had been attacked. When Azerbaijani citizens commented on those posts disagreeing, these celebrities, in a cowardly move, suddenly decided they were wrong and pulled down their videos. They chose the safe option, the one that said “I’m not educated enough to make a decision.”
After promoting a fundraiser for Armenia and getting backlash from Azerbaijani users, Cardi B tweeted: “I don’t support terrorism. I literally posted it for my friend without doing any research on what’s going on. I’m sorry about that. I don’t like war. I don’t like conflicts between two countries period I hate innocent people being affected by it.”
Musician Elton John also posted on Instagram showing solidarity with Armenia. “I am joining others today posting a red block because we want #PeaceForArmenia,” John said. Later on, he removed the post and instead posted a peace sign.
“I was deeply upset to see that military conflict has broken out in the region between Armenia and Azerbaijan after many peaceful years […] I’m praying for an end to the violence for both countries,” John said the second time.
Refusing to take a side shows a lack of concern and engagement with global issues. The information is there. There are books covering historical events, journalists reporting live and academic journals providing context, and in an age of globalism where most people are connected and have access to digital media and news, people should be actively engaging with coverage of global issues.
Contact Francine Ghazarian at ghazarian@oxy.edu
