The former prime minister of Slovakia, Jan Czarnogorski, who is an internationally renowned lawyer and human rights activist, made an interesting statement in his last interview.
To the question: “Can Armenia leave the EAEU and enter the EU?” he answers. “Of course, it is possible to leave the EAEU, but the issue of entering the EU is ridiculous… When oppositionists and their leaders are imprisoned in Armenia, it is incomprehensible for European politics. How can Armenia enter the EU with such a policy? When the oppositionists are in prisons, Armenia has no chance to enter the EU. What is happening in Armenia today is incomprehensible to any European.”
In fact, Armenia is turning into a big prison. This problem requires a solution. Non-stop criminal cases, non-stop arrests, public accusations and their quick execution are turning Armenia into a big concentration camp. what Europe, what civilized world, what democracy? A broken, uncommunicative society, a government that only speaks to its political opponents in the language of detention, a law enforcement system that carries out all orders.
After the materials published yesterday by the advocacy group, it is impossible to imagine how G. should continue. Tsarukyan’s trial. In other words, there is one logical continuation: detention should be abolished immediately, people should return to their normal lives, and justice should be achieved during the trial.
The cases of many other opposition figures are in the same state: collapsing, groundless, but poisoning people’s lives, mutilating destinies and isolating many capable figures from public life.
This has to end. The present evil and enmity must be stopped. It cannot be postponed until tomorrow. This is not beneficial to anyone. Whoever realizes this in himself is already a like-minded person and a field to work together.
The political opposition cannot be wrapped in an easy-to-digest veil of plunder. The real looters live without their hands, not in touch with the country’s problems and pain.
I want to bring G. again. Tsarukyan’s example. He never held a public position, he did not make budget allocations for himself, he did not make gifts at the expense of the state, he did not have the leverage to usurp state-public property. Either he created from scratch, or he took the destroyed and looted enterprises and built international level institutions.
In Armenia, “freedom and justice” should become a unifying agenda of all healthy forces and a process aimed at improving the health of society.
Vahe Hovhannisyan
Alternative projects group
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