The reviews concerning the development of democracy in Armenia released yesterday in the report of «Freedom House» international human rights organization, according to the assessment of the lawyer Vardan Harutyunyan do not meet the reality. “Maybe they can show us if there were more beaten journalists last year, and less this year, or more pressure this year than last year, from their viewpoint is is a progress. But as far as we want that such cases never happen in Armenia in general, we continue to consider Armenia as a country that has problems with human rights and an authority, who does not need to be encouraged. According to the rough arithmetical calculations, two or fifteen beaten journalists, four or nine political detainees etc., viewing these comparisons, encourage the authorities of countries such as Armenia. I do not share their opinion”, – said Mr. Harutyunyan to Aravot.am.
He was referring to the part of the report that the abuses of administrative resources and the violations detected on the day of the elections, to some extent, were preserved during these elections as well, but generally, the possibility of an alternative was increased, in both countries more representative legislative bodies are formed. For the first time the Armenian National Congress opposition has received seats in the National Assembly and started to participate in the activities of the Parliament, again disagreed,- “The applauses that are released from the “Freedom House”, any rational person in Armenia who is aware of the truth cannot share it. These are opinions voiced with diplomatic considerations. The fact that during the elections the authorities use governing resource, it means that the election can not be clean. If the elections were clean, there would be more opposition in the National Assembly”, – said the lawyer.
Mr. Harutyunyan commented the progress of Armenia in relation with 2012 Parliamentary elections in Armenia. And referring to this part of the report that “At the time when Azerbaijan was aggressively suppressing the political opposition, Armenia and Georgia were holding parliamentary elections in compliance with the new electoral code, which especially signifies equal opportunities of candidates to access pre-election resources and media coverage”, -said the lawyer, – “If “Freedom House” reviews Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tadzhikistan in comparison with North Korea, we can record that Armenia and Tajikistan are brilliant democratic countries. If the comparison is with a bad one, of course, we will be to a little better in comparison with a worse one. This does not still mean that we are the country whose citizens can be satisfied with their power and reality. Yes, the authorities under the pressure of the nation are forced to take some steps for the development of democracy, they are forced to release political detainees, except for Tigran Arakelyan, they are forced to create an imitation of elections to make the “Freedom House” happy”.
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Arpine SIMONYAN
