Yesterday Armenia’s state human rights ombudsman, Karen Andreasyan, offered to help the government and the main opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) embark on a dialogue that would address lingering political tensions in the country. The problem is not that the mediator’s function is outside the powers of the Ombudsman despite the fact that Karen Andreasyan himself has tried to present it as its constitutional right. “First of all I am the compatriot of the two sides and moreover the power of mediator is granted to me by the constitution,” he stated without quoting any article from the constitution. The problem is that Karen Andreasyan is too serious about himself and thinks that he can solve the problem, which has been the key crisis ground of the internal political situation in the country. Moreover, he puts himself on the same level with the international community mediators, which have tried to reconcile the conflict between the government and the opposition. “I am entitled to protect people from all state bodies with the exception of courts. As a result of explicit shortcomings and malfunctioning of the judicial system, as well as biased trials people have lost their confidence in courts and got disappointed with state institutions. Thanks to the efforts of international organizations and different experts courts were declared to be fully independent of all institutes – a fact envisaged by the Armenian Constitution. Independence of the judiciary or judicial independence implies that judiciary is separate from and independent of the government, that is to say courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government, from private or partisan interests in order to ensure the rule of law. It does not imply that the judicial system should be isolated and holstered in its blemishes,” he said and added, “… I am new in political processes and quite young in order to frankly believe that the ideas of brotherhood and humanity are not fully annihilated from the ideology of political powers. And the young idealists, pragmatics and humanists can make the impossible possible.”
