As early as five years ago, President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan promised in his election program: “In the Armenia we long for, everyone will be equal before the law.” A set of human rights advocates claimed during a conversation with www.aravot.am that in this sense, the President of the Republic of Armenia hadn’t kept his promise.
Vardan Harutyunyan, the director of the Center for Freedom and Rights, noted during a conversation with www.aravot.am: “Many steps have been taken to do quite the opposite. Everyone has never been equal before the law, but during Serzh Sargsyan’s presidency that inequality has become more tangible. Serzh Sargsyan has failed to implement not only this, but also the other points in his election program. The part about democracy, as well as the part about the internal policy and economy. Our reality testifies to that. It is so obvious.”
In response to our observation that even a Chief of Police had been tried in the past five years, whether it didn’t mean that some steps had been taken to ensure equality before the law, Mr. Harutyunyan said: “Does trying a Chief of Police mean that everyone is equal before the law? Everyone’s equality before the law means that people believe in justice, are sure of tomorrow that cooked-up charges will not be pressed against them. And they just arbitrarily try this or that Chief of Police, because he hasn’t complied with their rules of the game.”
Tigran Ter-Yesayan, the director of the Forum human rights center, thinks that the above-mentioned point in the program is a rhetorical idea expressed by politicians and is a common option. According to him, “those are ideas that the society likes, and politicians in all states use them. Everyone asks for more time to implement his promises.”
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Coming back to our reality, Mr. Ter-Yesayan said: “There are still a lot of things to do, in order to reach the state that was promised five years ago. There is one nuance here. If the leader expresses an idea, if one makes a political promise, naturally, he cannot do it alone. It is just that the team, those people who are the supporters, who hold offices should take on some moral responsibility. At the end of the day, that person is just a man. One should look into it and see who doesn’t keep his word, kick him out of the office, in order that he can never be seen in the system. Otherwise, people whom they fire suddenly appear on the list of MPs, they fire a governor and appoint him an ambassador; they fire an ambassador and bring
him to the government. The people see that, right? Whereas if someone made a mistake, he should never work in politics anymore.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
