Author: Vanyan Gary

Economist Suren Parsyan, who heads the ARF Bureau's Economic Research Office, on Thursday reacted to the statements of the Armenian authorities regarding the socio-economic achievements of 2021.

He states that in reality they are “inertial, almost unrelated to the work of the government and very modest.”

"According to the official statistics, 5.8% growth was recorded in 2021 against the background of 7.4% decline in 2020. That is, the current government even failed to reach the indicators of 2019,” he wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

“To compare, Georgia’s economy grew by 10.6% in 2021 after 6.8% drop in 2020. Unlike Armenia, Georgia's economy not only recovered after 2020, but also recorded an economic growth of 3 percentage points compared to 2019. Thus, compared to Armenia, Georgia's economy grew twice as fast by 2021.

“Georgia's foreign trade turnover increased by 25.6% and Armenia's turnover – by 17.7%. With the double-digit economic growth in 2021, inflation in Georgia was 13.9% and in Armenia – 7.2%," the economist said.

Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan has shared a statement of the European Ombudsman Institute (EOI) on the Public TV Company’s policy regarding the ombudsman’s activities.

The full text of the statement released on 28 January is provided below.

“It is a matter of serious concern for us that the Public TV Company of Armenia being established by the Government is implementing a policy of blocking broadcasting activities of the Human Rights Defender as already a long-standing policy.

The Human Rights Defender of Armenia is independent and enjoys true respect, has international recognition of its authority.

The Armenian National Human Rights Institution plays an important role in protection of human rights and promotion of democracy. It develops awareness of citizens about their rights not only through statements, but also awareness raising public campaigns, as well as contributes to citizens' control over public authorities.

It is of outmost importance that the Human Rights Defender of Armenia is an irreplaceable source of information in a number of areas (e.g. torture prevention through NPM visits to prisons as an exclusive authority) and serves as a credible source of alternative views or information on the ground for the society.

National Human Rights Institutions are protected internationally (Council of Europe, OSCE, etc.); the policy of the Public TV Company of Armenia is an institutional harm to the public reputation of this constitutional institution and, thus, to its effectiveness through limitation of its human rights protection capacities.

We closely follow the difficulties that the Armenian National Human Rights Institution faces in relations with public authorities in a number of areas, but this should have no impact on broadcasting attitude of the Government founded Public TV Company.

Thus, we call on the Public TV Company and the Public Broadcaster of Armenia to put an immediate end to this unacceptable policy and to retrieve its normal broadcasting policy regarding the Armenian Human Rights Defender.

This is the way to promote the right public discourse in the country.”

The Statement can be read at: 

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2022/02/02/EOI-Armenian-ombudsman/2635228

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited Armenian captives being held in Azerbaijan, ICRC Armenia Office Communications Program Manager Zara Amatuni told Sputnik Armenia on Friday.

"Employees of the organization visited all those persons whose captivity has been confirmed by the Azerbaijani authorities. Among them are those who were captured at the end of 2020 and in November 2021,” Amatuni said.

The ICRC employees familiarized themselves with the detention conditions, delivered letters and video messages to the captives from their relatives and took their messages to their families. In addition, with the help of the Red Cross, the prisoners were able to talk to their families by telephone.

According to the official data, 199 servicemen and 21 civilians are still missing after the Artsakh war in autumn 2020.