Wednesday, January 11 2023 11:16

ArmInfo. The appointment of Vahe Ghazarian as Armenia's Minister of the Interior has blocked the way to real and comprehensive reforms of Armenia's Police, reads a  joint statement by the Coordinating Council for Police Reforms  consisting of three NGOs - Helsinki Citizens' Assembly-Vanadzor,  Union of Informed Citizens and Driver's Friend. 

"The 2018 revolution promised radical reforms of Armenia's Police. In  2020, the Government of the Republic of Armenia approved the reform  strategy developed by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of  Armenia, which reflected the main problems of the system and  reasonable, feasible solutions to solve them, and the Coordinating  Council for Police Reform, headed by the Prime Minister of the  Republic of Armenia, was also established. From the very beginning,  non-governmental organizations expressed concerns about the  transition to a segmental reform of the police instead of systemic  changes, in particular, the introduction of the Patrol Service.  However, non-governmental organizations have made a great  contribution to the creation of a new service. The main goal was to  support deep, real, institutional and value reforms of the law  enforcement system, seeing a certain political will on the part of  the authorities," the statement says.

However, according to the authors of the document, in the last two  years it has become obvious that even the process of sectoral reforms  is actively resisted by the leadership of the police, including the  head of the RA Police Vahe Ghazaryan and his deputy Kamo Tsutsulyan,  which resulted in the devaluation of the reform process, the normal  work of the reformed units , perversion of the principle of equal  responsibility of all before the law, patronage of personnel  appointments and support for corrupt interests. "There are many  examples recorded by NGOs: attempts to fire patrol officers who  stopped cars of high-ranking officials, cases of conferring officer  ranks on acquaintances and relatives, attempts to make the patrol  service schedule as inconvenient as possible, attempts to send 20  traffic police officers to the Patrol Service without conducting  checks and other examinations, deliberately delaying the repair of  broken patrol cars for months. However, the civil society  organizations mentioned below decided to continue to support the  process of creating the Ministry of Internal Affairs and expected  that a civilian minister would be appointed, not limited by  connections and dubious traditions within the system, but with  prerequisites for public trust, thanks to his good behavior and law  abidance, attentive to human rights and values of democracy," the  statement emphasizes. political will on the part of the authorities,"  the statement says.

Nevertheless, as its authors recall, on January 9, 2023, on the  proposal of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Police Chief Vahe  Ghazaryan was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic  of Armenia.  Instead of preventing the above challenges that  undermine the reform process, the political power of such  appointments, in fact, not only encourages those who resist the  reform process, but also destroys confidence in the process of  forming the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We, the undersigned  non-governmental organizations, members of the Coordinating Council  for Police Reforms, believe that with the appointment of such persons  to such key positions, the path to real, deep and full-fledged police  reform is almost completely blocked. Moreover, we believe that these  appointments will inevitably lead to a new flourishing of patronage  and other manifestations of corruption in the system and the  restoration of other traditions that are diametrically opposed to the  values of the reforms. In this regard, the Vanadzor office of the  Helsinki Civil Assembly, the "Union of Informed Citizens" and the  human rights organization "Driver's Friend" cease their activities in  the Coordinating Council for Police Reform and working groups,  considering it meaningless in the current situation. And although the  need for deep, institutional and real reforms of the police in  Armenia is very great, we believe that in the case of the appointment  of General Vahe Ghazaryan to the post of Minister of Internal  Affairs, it is impossible to carry out either deep, institutional or  real reforms," reads the statement.