"IT IS A MISTAKE TO CONSIDER ARMENIA PARTIALLY FREE"

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[04:46 pm] 13 January, 2009

According to head of the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Citizen’s
Assembly Artur Sakunts, the Freedom House evaluation of Armenia
doesn’t correspond to reality.

According to Sakunts, Armenia is not a partially free country as
stated in the evaluation of Freedom House this year; rather, it is
completely not free.

Artur Sakunts listed a number of conditions that allow him to
disagree with the evaluation given by the Freedom House experts,
including prohibition of halls for the opposition, ban on marches
and demonstrations, as well as limits set on freedom of speech and
use of electronic media.

"There is a large scale of violations in Armenia, including assaults
against political prisoners and others regardless of political views,
as well as average citizens. It is simply a mistake to consider Armenia
half-free when there are political prisoners," Artur Sakunts goes on
to say.

According to the Freedom House international law defense organization,
there was a decline in freedom last year in Armenia. Last year,
Armenia’s reputation went down in terms of political rights. As stated
in the "Freedom in the World-2009" report, it is due to the events
that took place in the wake of the February 19 presidential elections.

Artur Sakunts believes that the decline in reputation in terms of
political rights was registered before and not after the presidential
elections.

"There has been no freedom in Armenia since the state overturn in
1998 and it reached the peak on March 1," said Sakunts.

Freedom House has observed 193 countries of which 89 were considered
free, 62 were partially free, while 42 were not free countries. Georgia
and Turkey were considered partially free, while Azerbaijan is not
a free country. Russia was also considered as not a free country,
while Ukraine is in the list of free countries.