Arman Tatoyan: Law enforcement agencies must not allow the Civil Contract party to turn them into a tool of their protection

Arman Tatoyan, Former Human Rights Defender of Armenia, made a Facebook post where he said:

“In reality, everything is clear with the head of the Civil Contract party, who holds the office of Prime Minister of Armenia. For the sake of his power, he oversteps the limits of his authorities, unlawfully interferes with or usurps the exclusive powers of law enforcement bodies. In other words, these powers are reserved solely for those bodies, and the Prime Minister is prohibited from doing what he is doing.

Law enforcement agencies must not allow the Civil Contract party to turn them into a tool of their protection through actions that undermine statehood.

By openly issuing political instructions to law enforcement bodies, the head of the executive power discredits them — even going so far as to publicly instructing what they can or cannot do. This is done in an organized manner: certain MPs from the Civil Contract party immediately rush to justify and spread these instructions. Their obsession with political power is so great that they do not even think that the Prime Minister’s posts themselves serve as trump cards confirming each of their illegalities.

This is how the foundations of the rule of law are destroyed; the checks and balances — mechanisms of a democratic state — no longer function. As a result, everyone, including bodies that should be independent from the government, ends up serving one person and one party.

Whatever investigative or prosecutorial actions are carried out in the Mother See (the Holy See of Etchmiadzin), the head of the Civil Contract party, holding the office of Prime Minister, already stamps them with illegality through his unlawful guidance.

These are proof that a party-based autocracy and personal rule have been established in the country.”