Urgent Attention Needed on Opposition Crackdown in Armenia
Dear President Ms., von der Leyen,
On behalf of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) and our 14 chapters across Europe, we write with deep concern regarding the alarming deterioration of the political landscape in Armenia, a situation we urge you to keep in mind in your ongoing engagements with the Armenian government.
Your meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan comes at a crucial moment for the Armenian people and their democratic future. As you may be aware, there has been an escalating campaign in recent weeks against the Armenian Apostolic Church, including attacks against His Holiness Catholicos Karekin II, delegitimizing accusations, and the arrests of senior clergy.
We are particularly alarmed by the serious deterioration of the political situation in Armenia and the frivolous recent arrests made against political opponents, which is completely baseless and justified through fabricated pretexts. In one example, an image of a strike-ball gun was published supposedly confirming allegations of threats against the regime. This crackdown on opposition figures targeted members of the Armenian National Assembly, youth activists and even peaceful protestors voicing their opposition to the recent arrests. These detentions were also accompanied by improper judicial practices such as the inability of the detainees to access lawyers, intimidation tactics and a sharp increase of police presence in major Armenian cities to deter protests. This weaponization of the judiciary is suffocating Armenia’s fragile democratic space.
Equally troubling is the alarming tendency of the government to brand any form of democratic opposition as “pro-Russian”, a misleading and even offensive policy of delegitimization that intends to make any political debate redundant and abuse existing geopolitical grievances for personal and political reasons.
If Armenia is to build a democratic future, with a resilient and independent judicial system, aligned with its aspirations for closer cooperation and integration with the European Union, it is imperative to denounce these anti-democratic actions undertaken by the current government who seems to be willing to sacrifice this future for temporary political expediency.
We therefore urge you to clearly indicate to Mr. Pashinyan and his representatives that the rule of law is paramount and the democratic values of freedom of expression and assembly must be fully respected. Additionally, weaponization of the judicial system against political opposition should not be tolerated and denounced in its entirety. The EU must strongly defend its democratic values, and the Armenian people deserve to exercise said values freely. It is to be noted also that according to the CEPA agreement signed in 2017 between Armenia and the EU, the EU must foresee reforms particularly on judicial and police reform and has a responsibility to demand from the Armenian Government to proceed with these reforms by acts and by words. Today the situation in the fields of judiciary, police enforcement and human rights is deteriorating day by day. Any encouragement of the Prime Minister is understood by him as encouragement to apply his internal policy as he does currently.
We remain at your disposal for any further context or support you may require. Thank you for your continued commitment to democratic values and to strengthening the EU’s partnership with the people of Armenia.
Yours sincerely,
Kaspar Karampetian
President
On behalf of EAFJD and its 14 chapters across Europe
