On January 12, the Human rights defender of the Republic of Armenia, Karen Andreasyan, handed in his resignation and announced that there will be no further comments explaining the reasons behind his decision. This led to an array of speculations.
Today, in an open letter to the Armenian public, the former ombudsman tried to summarize his years as Armenia’s Human Rights Defender, “The only governmental office I ever aspired to”. Andreasyan says, over the past days, he heard a number of reasonable speculations over his resignation but also some preposterous ones.
As a practical person, he says he understands that people expect to hear a to-the-point explanation for his resignation but the reasons behind his decision are “multilayered and it would be difficult to present them in a word or two”.
In his letter, he elaborates by saying, “Had I carried on as Ombudsman in 2016, this most important institution would have ceased to be as effective as it had become in past years as a result of tireless work”.
Andreasyan says the idealism with which he came into office wore out but did not disappear. Over the past five years, it has evolved into a “more informed and wiser” form of idealism.
As an attorney, Andreasyan says he hopes the laws to be adopted under Armenia’s new constitution will be intended to solve issues the old constitution discarded, in favor of human rights.
As an optimist, he says, “I hope my children will grow up in an Armenia where equality before the law is an undisputable fact and my sons’ military service will pass without a single adversary shot”.
In his letter, Karen Antreasyan apologies to all those whose expectations he was not able to meet, “for objective or subjective reasons” and thanks the many who helped him take on and implement the important task of defending peoples’ rights.
In conclusion he writes, “P.S. My second resignation will follow shortly”.
