During Aravot’s “Areresum (Confrontation)” program, Ruben Melikyan, co-founder of the Legal Way non-governmental organization, accused Daniel Ioannisyan, the founder of the Union of Informed Citizens non-governmental organization and program coordinator, of making statements based on political expediency.
“The greatest enemy of democracy is not dictatorship, but double standards. When we have double standards, the idea of democracy generally dies,” said Ruben Melikyan, adding that there may be “half-hearted condemnations”, but there is no backwardness. In response, Daniel Ioannisyan particularly said, “Numerous violations were not only registered by us, but were registered by us and we were able to find evidence of those violations.” Regarding the accusation of being guided by double standards, Ruben Melikyan spoke about the reaction to human rights violations during his work as the Artsakh Human Rights Defender in 2016-2018.
“At that time, the NSS and the police persecuted the opposition in Artsakh, and took the opposition to the departments for prophylactic talks. There were tortures in the Shushi penitentiary by the police with substantial evidence,” Ioannisyan said, citing the example of beating and beating Hayk Khanumyan.
Ruben Melikyan insisted that during his tenure there was no case of torture to which he did not respond. “Have you read my report? Sorry, this is just a slander. I have strongly condemned what you say.” In particular, he revealed that he had a conversation with Arayik Harutyunyan regarding Hayk Khanumyan. “I said in the strongest terms, on the same day, if the people who committed this act are not arrested in 1-2 days, I will resign․․․ It was a matter of my honor.” Most of the conversation referred to the actions of the police during the rallies. Particularly referring to the fact that the police officers used physical force against the Armenian parliamentary deputies, including damaging the clothes, pushing, using a “suffocating” trick, etc., Daniel Ioannisyan said, “Violence against NA deputies is condemnable when that violence is illegal. When the NA deputy tries to use violence against the police, there must be retaliatory violence against them. Who said that the NA deputy can do whatever they want?” “Where have you been? Did you see that?”
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Ruben Melikyan asked, trying to find out what the deputies did, did they slap, are there any relevant videos? Regarding what happened near the third building of the government, Mr. Ioannisyan insisted that “there is really a shortage of videos.” “There are no such videos,” Mr. Melikyan assured. Instead, according to him, there are many videos about police violence, but those people have not been arrested. By the way, later the founder of UIC assessed that “the police has not reformed in any way in the issue of crowd control.”
Reference was also made to the attack on the head of the executive body of the “Antares” publishing house Armen Martirosyan. Daniel Ioannisyan insisted that the police in this case should be called to account for inaction. And he expressed surprise that Ruben Melikyan did not condemn that violence, but stated that he would go to light a candle in the church, “thanking that everything ended so well for him.” Ruben Melikyan countered, “Yes, I insist on what I said.” “And this man considers himself a human rights activist,” exclaimed Mr. Ioannisyan.
Ruben Melikyan’s substantiation was that Armen Martirosyan had been subjected to public moral reproach before the violence on December 20, 2020 for his Facebook post. “They entered the territory of another state, ruled for 26 years, built bases, built houses, and operated mines. Now the owner of the area says go. They say nothing is written about it in the announcement.” The co-founder of the Legal Way NGO said that the institution of public reproach can “prevent people from indulging in things that violate the deepest values.” However, he added that it should not lead to violence.
Anna ISRAELYAN
