"Fact" daily writes:
Vahe Hakobyan, former member of the National Assembly, chairman of the "Reviving Armenia" party, has sent an open letter to the European Union, where he addresses the anti-democratic events taking place in Armenia and the silence of the international community.
We present the letter below. The consequences of the silence of the international community and its culprits. silence that has become a political tool to cover up oppression, silence that gives Pashinyan's regime the confidence of complete impunity, silence that has turned into consent, participation and approval.
As long as you, the international community, continue to talk about values, archbishops, philanthropists, journalists, oppositionists, lawyers and peaceful citizens are persecuted or pressured, detained or arrested in Armenia.
Armenian archbishops, bishops and clerics were arrested, a precedent that did not occur even in the darkest years of our history (Bagrat, Michael and Mkrtich Bishops). Along with the archbishops, many people were also arrested on baseless charges, and the case is called "the case of the 18 righteous" again with baseless, fictitious charges based on edited recordings.
Samvel Karapetyan is in prison for supporting the Church and expressing "our way".
Lidya Mantashyan, a female political prisoner, whose only "sin" is not wanting to remain silent, is in prison. In order to criticize the government, repressive methods do not bypass even the lawyers in the person of Alexander Kochubaev and the lawyer of the "Our way" movement, lawyer Ruben Mkhitaryan. Arrests were also used several times against the hosts of the "Imnemnim" podcast, Vazgen Saghatelyan and Narek Samsonyan, who are also critical of the government.
The government uses the same way of working towards journalists and the media, often using disproportionate methods, disrupting the work of the media, confiscating technical means.
The working style of the government is not so constrained by legal mechanisms that political imprisonments do not bypass the elected community leaders: Mamikon Aslanyan, Davit Hambardzumyan, Vardan Ghukasyan, MPs: Artur Sargsyan, Levon Kocharyan, other opposition MPs facing various criminal cases, who are quickly deprived of their immunity and end up in prisons.
Fictitious cases are made, lengthy court proceedings are conducted and the most severe punishments are applied to the "accused" in the course of the entire judicial process, in the form of imprisonment. The criterion for getting behind bars is only one: to oppose and criticize the government, to disagree with its working style and policies. Freedom of speech is destroyed, the Church is under pressure.
Justice has turned into a revenge mechanism. The regime is rapidly moving towards the standard of outright authoritarianism and/or totalitarianism. Everything with Nikol Pashinyan has been clear for a long time. He does what any leader who has lost legitimacy does. But, international community, your silence is much more dangerous than his actions. European countries, accredited ambassadors of European countries to Armenia, I accuse you of double standards. You condemn oppression where it is useful to you, and you turn a blind eye when it is used by your colleagues.
Until 2018, you were reacting to the slightest pressure on freedom of speech. Today, when archbishops are arrested in Armenia, when criminal cases are falsified, when dissenters are persecuted every day, you choose silence. When alternative disruption measures are introduced with your funding and they are simply trampled and ignored, you choose silence. This is not neutrality.
This is hypocrisy. European community, you are responsible. responsibility for the fact that. - people are imprisoned for their opinion, - The church is under attack. - complaints are suppressed, - independent structures are destroyed, - political affairs become a regularity. Your silence is part of this system, your handshakes are its legitimization. You are destroying your own reputation. Today, a question is being asked in Armenia: why is Europe disappearing where everything that Europe itself promotes is being violated? When you remain silent about oppression, you lose the moral right to speak of democracy. You are losing the trust of the people who have always chosen freedom. And you create this decline with your own hands.
Talk about reality honestly. If you support Pashinyan, say openly that you support the repressive regime. If you don't support it, explain why you cover his actions with diplomatic firmness. Because today silence is equal to participation, ambivalence to liking, hypocrisy to renouncing one's own principles.
The Armenian people see and remember that.
