Alliance of Online Liberals Proposes 3 Candidates for Armenia’s Ombudsman

The Alliance of Online Liberals, a group created last month on Facebook by Armenian National Congress and Committee for the Protection of Political Prisoners and Persecuted People member Karapet Rubinyan, has proposed candidates for Armenia’s soon-to-be vacant ombudsman position.

The group, which also goes by the name “3A” (the Armenian acronym involves three words, each which begin with the letter “A”), has proposed the following candidates: head of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor office Artur Sakunts; journalist, human rights activist, Journalists for Human Rights NGO President Zhanna Alexanyan; and human rights activist, political prisoner during the Soviet years, Committee for the Protection of Political Prisoners and Persecuted People coordinator Vardan Harutyunyan.

With this proposal, on the verge of selecting Armenia’s third Human Rights Defender, 3A would like to focus the public’s attention to the fact that one of the serious circumstances promoting emigration and likened to a national disaster is the violation of human rights in Armenia.

“Aren’t our authorities, particularly the deputies in the National Assembly authorized with representing our interests, going to come to, at least persuaded by the instinct of self-defense. Aren’t they going to understand that we need not a puppet, but a completely independent person. Someone who has already proven with his or her actions the ability to act so,” reads the statement by the group.