Unfortunately, This Year Was Marked by Severe Violations of Human Rights: Arman Tatoyan's Message

Former Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, issued a statement on the occasion of International Human Rights Day: "Unfortunately, this year was marked by severe violations of human rights. Azerbaijan kept our 120,000 compatriots in Artsakh under blockade for more than 9 months, subsequently subjecting them to mass deprivation of livelihood and forced displacement from their homeland, depriving them of the right to live through armed attacks, and inflicting inhumane physical and psychological suffering. They then began to deny and falsify everything. All this happened before the eyes of the whole world.

The main lesson we should draw from these ongoing injustices is the realization that our best defender is indeed our state itself, a strong state free from the political captivity of officials. Within the state, there must be mutual respect, solidarity, accountability for actions, and faith in our own strength. We must live with new goals and ideas, never limiting ourselves to what we have achieved and never retreating in the face of difficulties, in order to have a country where dignity and the rule of law prevail.

Only with such a statehood and value system can a person be protected in their own country, with fundamental guarantees of the rule of law," wrote Tatoyan.