I was hosted by H.E. LUKAS ROSENKRANZ, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Switzerland to Armenia.
Our working meeting, of course, began with words of gratitude to the Ambassador, who had met the parents of the dead and missing and had listened to them. The problems of parents who have lost their sons are at the center of my daily attention.
Speaking on the results of the Pashinyan-Aliev-Michel meeting held in Brussels I mentioned that Nikol Pashinyan’s recognition of Artsakh as a part of Azerbaijan has a serious problem of legitimacy, as the RA Supreme Council’s decision of July 8, 1992 states: “It is unacceptable for the Republic of Armenia to consider any international or domestic document in which the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh will be mentioned as part of Azerbaijan.”
In this regard I introduced Mr. Ambassador to the purpose and results of the petition organized on my initiative to represent the collective will of all Armenians that Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan. I mentioned that more than 300,000 signatures were collected, which is a testimony to the simple truth that the people do not agree with the policy of the current government.
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I emphasized that the territorial integrity of Soviet Azerbaijan has been recognized in the case when Azerbaijan does not consider itself the legal successor of Soviet Azerbaijan.
As an eyewitness, I also introduced the situation in border community Vardenis and in Sotk, a target for shooting. I noticed that about 800 employees of the Sotk gold mine couldn’t go to work for already more than a month. This is a serious social problem for the entire Vardenis region.
I introduced the Ambassador to the most serious issues related to human rights in Armenia, considered the “bastion of democracy”, in particular discriminatory attitudes and selective justice. I noted that a number of articles are actually a tool in the hands of the authorities to punish oppositional citizens who do not share their views.
I introduced a number of examples of the manifestation of this phenomenon. I mentioned the illegalities that took place in the shameful session of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs of the National Assembly, when Artur Hovhannisyan, the secretary of the ruling “Civil Contract” faction threatened to cut off ears and tongue of the candidate of the Human Rights Defender nominated by the opposition factions and not only remained unpunished but also with other members of their faction still thinking about raising the issue of my dismissal, because I did not prohibit Edgar Ghazaryan from speaking during his available period. How and why should I had to do this?
I introduced the Ambassador that on April 20 while conducting political action, the security personnel, on the order of the President of the National Assembly, forcibly took me and my fellow MPs out of the National Assembly session hall during the break and did not allow us to reenter. No one has been held accountable for this illegality.
I told Mr. Ambassador that when Hovik Aghazaryan, MP of the “Civil Contract” faction, directs sexual insults at a citizen on the social media he remains unpunished, but when an ordinary citizen curses any representative of the authorities he is immediately punished.
At the end of the conversation we expressed our mutual willingness to expand the scopes of the cooperation.
Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs, nonpartisan Taguhi Tovmasyan