– The coalition has nominated you for the ombudsman’s position. Will it be difficult for you to work as the human rights defender?
– I can’t say if it will be difficult for me. Also, the coalition has majority in the parliament and nobody can become ombudsman without the coalition’s approval. As for the fact of being nominated by the coalition, it is not a problem for being impartial.
– Do you mean that the fact of being nominated by the coalition will not keep you from being objective and impartial?
– I believe the ombudsman should protect both the government and opposition, as well as any representatives of the society. Certainly I must try to be as impartial as I can.
– Will you try to raise the issue of releasing the political prisoners resulted from the unrest of March 1?
– First of all I will try to examine the details of that case. All the information I have is the information I received from the media as a citizen. I will examine all the details of the issue and if it is legally justified and reasonable, I will raise that issue.
– You are a lawyer and journalist, and you know very well that the society knows about such things very well.
– As a lawyer I know an important thing: nobody knows all the details about a case if heard from the media only. As a citizen I have information about it and I have my own approach, but nobody cares about Karen Andreasyan’s personal opinion. The ombudsman must know all the details of the case to be able to proceed.
– I would like to know your opinion as a member of this society.
– I think people should not care about my personal opinion because I have been nominated for a position that if I say anything it may be misused for political purposes. I prefer not expressing my personal opinion till I am elected. In case of being elected I will speak about my opinion as ombudsman, but if I am not elected I will continue speaking about my opinion as a member of this society. I think the opinions of ordinary citizens, especially if they are not actively involved in the social and civic life, are not so important.
– The opposition is not happy with the limitations of organizing rallies and demonstrations as they are not allowed to hold demonstrations in the Freedom Square. Which of the parties are true according to your opinion?
– I can only cite the former ombudsman for now, who said that it does not affect the opposition to exercise their rights. I do not have any opinion now until I examine the case as the ombudsman.
– We know that you have been an author of the bill on considering blackmailing not crime, as a result of which media companies are paying financial compensation as punishment for certain information they publish. When making this law did not you think that it would become a tool for the authorities to punish media companies?
– Our goal was to adopt a law which does not construe blackmailing a crime in order to discuss such issues in the civic sector not to send people to prisons for this activity. This is common in Europe too. I recommended not to give an opportunity to anybody to humiliate people by blackmailing or spreading negative information. My initiative has become a law. I cannot say that I was the author of this law because my idea was not embraced by anybody. I recommended journalists to work together not to let this initiative be misused. Nobody joined my efforts. Now I cannot say anything; I cannot say if it is misused or no. As ombudsman my responsibility will be to make sure that the sum of 2 million drams for such violation is applied by the court proportionally.
– There are rumors that you were nominated in this position due to your good relations with your university friend military prosecutor Gevorg Kostanyan and the deputy head of the president’s administration Mikayel Minasyan.
– I understand that these are rumors and will stay rumors. I feel pity that people pay attention to rumors. G. Kostanyan is my university friend; that’s true. I have many university friends both in the government and in the opposition. As for the good relations with Mr. Minasyan, I think it would be anyone’s pleasure to have such relations with this person, but I would not praise our relations with him.
– Are not you afraid to oppose to the authorities in your work and be criticized by them like it happened with the former ombudsman?
– I do not have that problem because according to the law I am not nominated by the president. I am nominated by 26 MPs and 78 MPs are going to vote. If the 78 MPs decide that I am the right person in that position, I will be happy to start my work. But I am going to work not for anybody or to do pleasure for certain people but for everybody in order to help people. I have always wanted to help people. I have done this when being in a non-governmental organization and working as a lawyer.
– What do you think about the level of the ombudsman’s institute in Armenia?
– I do not want to evaluate the good or bad sides of this institution, but I will use my reports to raise the complaints of people. We understand that the work of the ombudsman is difficult because there are too many violations he can deal with.