Freedom House Inc. published a report “Freedom in the World 2013,” in which it also mentioned Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Although Armenia was described as Partly Free, as a year earlier, according to the table in the report, where 1 represents the most free and 7 the least free rating, the ratings of Political Rights and Civil Liberties were 5 and 4 respectively. And the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which was described as Not Free last year, has improved this year, becoming Partly Free, “due to a competitive presidential vote in July.” However, human rights advocates stated during a conversation with www.aravot.am that as opposed to the progress mentioned in the report, they didn’t see any steps forward in the field.
Human rights advocate Nina Karapetyants who dealt with Arman Veziryan’s case at the time, has no hopes that the situation will positively change in the near future. She went into detail during a conversation with us: “There can be no progress under these circumstances. We will have an election in the short run, and I think the election, although not expected to be active, will show anyway that there will still be no progress for a long time, since our society is still not ready for carrying changes through, and the government is not particularly inclined to changes. Therefore, courts are not independent, courts, which should be the main and most important bodies and be able to solve contentious issues, are not independent in our country. Therefore, we cannot expect that there may be progress.”
Vardan Harutyunyan, the director of the Center for Freedom and Rights, said in this regard: “They have their standards. It is a mere mathematical formula. Armenia fits into those standards. However, it doesn’t mean anything, particularly given the fact that they haven’t changed the status of the Republic of Armenia. Armenia continues to be among Partly Free countries. And the Republic of Armenia is compared with Not Free countries. They compare Armenia with North Korea, Iran and Uzbekistan and say that the Republic of Armenia is partly free as compared to North Korea. Thus, one shouldn’t be happy about that, moreover, one shouldn’t think that there has been progress. With regard to Karabakh, it is significant that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has eventually been removed from the list of Not Free countries, but it doesn’t mean that the Karabakh people should necessarily feel that.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
