After the “velvet revolutionaries” came to power in Armenia, an interesting pattern was formed. the more silent the official is in those moments when the country expects a principled position from him, the more successfully his career develops.
The story of the declaration of human rights defender Anahit Manasyan is from that series.
According to the published data, as of the end of 2024, two apartments in Yerevan, one car, around 17.7 million drams in bank deposits, as well as more than 61 million drams in bank accounts were under the management of the Human Rights Defender. The revenues of the reporting year amounted to about 19.5 million drams.
There is nothing sensational in these numbers. all property has been declared, income is of legal origin, and no violations of the law have been recorded.
However, the interest lies elsewhere: in the dynamics.
If at the end of 2023 there were about 26 million drams in Anahit Manasyan’s accounts, then a year later that amount exceeded 61 million. In other words, the funds increased by about 35 million drams within a year. Moreover, this happened in the conditions when the revenues of 2024 were lower than the previous year.
Such dynamics can have completely legal explanations: previously accumulated funds, redistribution of assets, change in the structure of savings. But in this case, the problem is not in numbers. The problem concerns the activity of the ombudsman.
Can anyone today remember at least one case when Anahit Manasyan got into a tough conflict with the authorities? When his position caused a serious political reaction. When the government had to justify itself after his statements.
There are almost no such examples.
Instead, there is constant caution in all government-sensitive matters, a tendency to avoid harsh wording, and an apparent disregard for what becomes the subject of wide public discussion.
This became especially evident during the last elections.
Throughout the campaign and after the election day, there were numerous reports of irregularities, misuse of administrative resources, pressure on voters, organized transfers and other circumstances that cast doubt on the confidence of a part of the public in the results.
The opposition announced massive violations of electoral rights. Videos and eyewitness accounts were shared on social networks. The society was waiting for a principled response from the institution, whose mission is to protect the rights of citizens, regardless of the political situation.
However, the loud and principled voice of the Human Rights Defender was never heard.
Meanwhile, the right to free and fair elections is one of the fundamental human rights. When there are serious doubts about the preservation of that right, the ombudsman should be one of the first to demand answers from the authorities.
If the Institute of the Human Rights Defender does not raise uncomfortable questions even when it comes to one of the most important democratic processes of the state, the question inevitably arises: what is that institute for and why does the state spend millions of drams on its maintenance every year?
Especially if we take into account that Anahit Manasyan came to that position from the same government system where he held the position of Deputy Prosecutor General. Back then, many people said that the government chooses not an independent defender, but a person most suitable for it.
Time passed, but those concerns did not disappear. On the contrary, today the Institute of the Defender of Human Rights has become a part of the state system, rather than a control mechanism over it.
Nikol Pashinyan and his team continue to talk about human rights, democracy and the independence of the institution. However, the Armenian society has too often faced the situation when beautiful statements do not coincide with reality.
People are judged not by words, but by results.
And the results are quite telling. In recent years, we have seen arrests of political opponents, prosecutions of critics, dispersal of protests by the use of disproportionate force, numerous complaints of electoral irregularities, and an unprecedented decline in trust in state institutions. However, against this background, the Institute of the Defender of Human Rights never became the center that was supposed to be a public counterbalance against the government’s arbitrariness.
Therefore, the problem is not Anahit Manasyan’s apartments, car, deposits or tens of millions of drams in his accounts.
The main question is what the citizen of the Republic of Armenia received in return for the existence of the institution, for the maintenance of which millions of drams are spent every year at the expense of taxpayers.
Source: Public Tribunal of Armenia
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