RA Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan wrote on his Facebook page:
The atmosphere in which the election campaign is taking place is very worrying. It deepens the polarization in the society, undermines the prospect of restoring solidarity in the country.
You can’t go on like this!
All political forces must exclude insults and swearing, any words related to hatred and violence.
Candidates for Prime Minister of all political forces running in the elections must take into account that every word they use is passed on to their supporters, and then they insult and curse each other with the same words.
Politicians, who are considered candidates for the post of Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia should be especially careful about the words they use, take into account all their metaphorical meanings.
Today, the promises of the acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia about civil-political vendettas, civil revenge, personnel smashing, and the use of swear words are very worrying.
Whatever the interpretation, the mentioned vendettas and civil revenge are clearly associated with violence and revenge, and the personnel smashing with mass violations of labor rights. The real danger of such rhetoric is that it exacerbates existing tensions and includes the risk of being transferred to real life. It is true that the acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia emphasized that it is not about physical revenge, but it is obvious that it did not neutralize the dangerous impact of the mentioned.
We repeat that the reference of the RA Human Rights Defender to the acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia is made especially due to the fact that in addition to politics, he continues to maintain the status of the head of the Executive Power of the Republic of Armenia, regardless of whether he is on vacation or not. That is why it is within the domain of direct competence of the Human Rights Defender.
It is by virtue of this status that the words of the Acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia may be misunderstood by the public, and also perceived as misleading messages by state bodies and, first of all, law enforcement agencies.
The monitoring of the Human Rights Defender’s Office shows that in the areas of social media where materials with the titles “civil revenge”, “vendetta” and other similar things were spread, words of insult and hatred, swearing and mutual accusations were recorded. These headlines prove once again that the reservation of non-physical retaliation had no effect.
The monitoring of social networks shows that in the context of violence, the topic of the duel between the candidate of the Prime Minister of the “Armenia” bloc and the candidate of the Prime Minister of the “Civil Contract” party, the acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia is being discussed.
In addition to the above, during a meeting with the Acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia today, one of the citizens mentioned that he had been dismissed, according to the formulation of the citizen, for not giving vote to the Prime Ministerial candidate of the “Hayastan” bloc.
This statement refers to the violation of a number of other labor rights; a separate letter from the staff of the RA Human Rights Defender will be addressed to the RA Prosecutor’s Office.
