Lawlessness in Armenia shakes country

/By AzerNews/

By Laman Sadigova

Frequent violation of the principles of democracy and elementary human rights has reached its peak following the attacks on free speech in Armenia that resulted in a serious scandal in the Post Soviet country.

Attacks on an independent newspaper in an effort to silence a journalist called into question the state of free speech in the country.

Local media directly blamed President Serzh Sargsyan in the closure of the Armenian newspaper “Third Force Plus” after the paper published a story about the violation of rights of ordinary people.

Armenian journalist Vagram Aradjanyan’s article “There is no budget money for ordinary citizens” angered the Armenian authorities. A true story that was finally written in a realistic manner caused the outrage of the Armenian government. The author of the article was sentenced to a year in prison with a two-year probation period.

This article resonated in the Armenian Diaspora as well, but the journalist felt the bitter price of truth.

The court considered the article slander against the authorities, saying that the citizens mentioned in the article do not exist. An outright lie angered farmers who then sought to be witnesses in court. However, nobody let them speak.

The crimes of the Armenian authorities has been condemned by hundreds of media and human rights organizations around the world, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (USA), Reporters Without Borders (France), Amnesty International (UK), the Russian Union of Journalists and many other organizations. Vahram Aghajanian has been declared a "prisoner of conscience” in Europe.

Armenia is in a deplorable state for a long time and its economy feels collapse. After the country occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands, it almost “cut” itself from all the bonds with its neighbors due to its aggressive external policy. Moreover, Turkey unequivocally refuses to open its borders with Armenia until the latter withdraws from Azerbaijan's occupied lands. Ankara has put Armenian troop's withdrawal from at least one Azerbaijani district as a condition to revive Turkish-Armenian protocols.

Azerbaijan's internationally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh territory became a conflict zone following Armenia's aggression in the early 1990s. As a result of Armenia's armed invasion, 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory fell under Armenia's occupation.