Former foreign affairs minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanyan gave an interview to his Civilitas Foundation webpage, during which among other issues he spoke about the state of democracy in Armenia. “…Freedoms are even more curtailed. Public assembly is hampered. I know that first-hand sitting here in the Civilitas office. Every kind of loud, musical event is given permission to take over the space around the opera, just so there are no public meetings held there. Television is controlled. People remain incarcerated for political reasons. The uncertainty surrounding Karabakh is palpable, there’s no negotiating document on which the sides are willing to work together. I have real concern that the right of people of NK to self-determination, which was codified in the negotiating document as a result of a long and hard effort, may just be allowed to slip away,” mentioned the former minister. These are very fair evaluations about the internal political situation in the country and about the obvious cases of violation of human rights. But in the case when the concern is raised by a person, who was requesting the people on public TV, which was similarly controlled back then, it becomes clear that he is merely dissatisfied about the fact that he is not on the list of people, who limit liberties. “If these illegalities continue, the president will have to declare a state of emergency to ensure the safety of our society because the event may turn out to be unpredictable. Everything depends on the gathered people and their political leader,” on the evening of March 1, 2008 press conference spoke Vardan Oskanyan on behalf of Robert Kocharyan. “The main problem is connected with the denying behavior of Levon Ter-Petrosyan. The hand is stretched and not shaking it is condemnable,” said the current “defender” of human rights Vardan Oskanyan by bringing details, “A police car was turned over, the glass windows of the city council were broken. The government can’t help interfering.” We hope to read the interpretations in the report of Civilitas.
