Opposition MP: Ombudsman’s statements are in Armenia’s interest, but they might not be pleasant for authorities

Every faction of the National Assembly of Armenia can nominate its candidate for the position of Human Rights Defender. This is what deputy of the opposition “Armenia” faction of the National Assembly Aram Vardevanyan said during a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am today.

Yesterday Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan declared that Tatoyan [Human Rights Defender of Armenia] acted as a counterrevolutionary and that there are only a few months left until the end of his term of office.

According to Vardevanyan, state officials started putting this into circulation when Tatoyan was talking about the fact that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces are committing a crime by being located on the borders of Armenia.

“Instead of supporting the Human Rights Defender and reaffirming his positions, the government officials started criticizing him and even questioned the reliability. This is embarrassing. This again shows that the statements of the incumbent authorities and the statements of Azerbaijan and Turkey are very interestingly combined. Since last night, Azerbaijani presses have been stating that the Human Rights Defender should be criticized and make references to Armenia’s government officials for substantiating the criticism,” he said.

 Vardevanyan noted that Tatoyan is carrying out a fact-finding mission, and the facts are used as arguments on different international platforms.

“The facts are exclusively in the interests of Armenia. A fact that is in the interests of Armenia might not be pleasant for the incumbent authorities, but that’s a different story,” he added.