Former Ombudsman of Armenia: “We will continue to report Azerbaijan's violations”

Former Ombudsman of Armenia Arman Tatoyan will continue his activities, including monitoring to identify violations committed by Azerbaijan. This, in his words, is “bad news for the Azerbaijani authorities”. Arman Tatoyan announced this at the final press conference amid the end of his term as ombudsman.

He took office exactly six years ago on February 23, and reported on the work done on the day he handed over to Armenia’s next human rights defender. He will be replaced by the former Deputy Minister of Justice Kristine Grigoryan, whose candidacy was proposed and supported in the parliament on the day of the election by the ruling faction.

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Complaints from citizens

Summing up the results of his work, Arman Tatoyan emphasized that during this time the number of applications from the inhabitants of Armenia to the office of the Ombudsman has significantly increased:

“In 2015, 5,214 complaints were received, in 2016 – 5,113, and in 2020 – 14,780, in 2021 – already 21,118”.

The hotline of the ombudsman’s office has also been reformed. Now, this service operates around the clock and can receive three calls at the same time. Moreover, the citizens of Armenia now have the opportunity to contact the Ombudsman’s office using Viber and WhatsApp.

In 2015, a little more than 2,000 people turned to the hotline, in 2021 – 7 times more (14,124).

“During this period, the number of applications submitted by the Office of the Human Rights Defender to the Constitutional Court increased by 5 times, and the number of checks-visits to various institutions increased by 11 times”, said Arman Tatoyan.

According to him, the ombudsman’s office has always acted independently:

“No head of government can say that I worked under their influence or the influence of their government”, Tatoyan said.

He stressed that he was leaving behind a well-established, strong structure.

“War is not over”

According to Tatoyan, the Azerbaijani authorities should not be allowed to “stupefy the Armenian society with false calls for peace”.

He recalls that the 44-day war of 2020 in Karabakh “was the result of the policy of hatred and enmity pursued by Azerbaijan”, and threats to peace continue today – already on the borders of Armenia:

“No one wants war, no one wants enmity, but we cannot deceive and convince ourselves that it is over. All this is not over yet, and we must get guarantees of our rights”.

The human rights activist argues that security guarantees for the citizens of Armenia should be key in the process of unblocking regional communications. According to him, peace cannot be “at the expense of only one side”, and, speaking about the restoration of communication with Azerbaijan, one should, first of all, think about the safety of people.

Arman Tatoyan urged the citizens of Armenia to demand guarantees from officials who “talk without guarantees about new processes” in the region. According to him, they proceed “solely from their political interests”, and some of them “do not even understand what they are talking about”.

During the press conference, Arman Tatoyan especially addressed the Azerbaijani side. He stated that he would not stop his human rights and social activities, he would continue monitoring the violations of the rights of the inhabitants of Armenia by Azerbaijan:

“We will continue to reveal their violations, uncover war crimes. In this respect, they have nothing to rejoice about”.

According to him, in the current situation, he cannot give up his human rights activities, he cannot afford the “luxury” of ignoring the rights of the peoples of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

At the same time, Tatoyan said that he does not represent himself at work in the public administration system, he does not intend to work with any political force.