Anahit Manasian pledged to “perform my duties impartially” on Wednesday as she was sworn in as ombudswoman immediately after the announcement of the vote results. She was backed only by deputies representing Civil Contract.
Manasian’s election followed a heated debate on the parliament floor that lasted for three hours on Tuesday. Opposition lawmakers grilled her and rejected her candidacy, saying that she cannot combat human rights abuses in the country because of her background.
One of them, Gegham Nazarian, accused the Armenian government of turning the office of the human rights defender into a “subsidiary of the prosecutor’s office.”
Manasian’s reluctance to criticize during the question-and-answer session the authorities’ or the controversial behavior of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political allies added to the opposition criticism. Gegham Manukian, another lawmaker from the main opposition Hayastan alliance, denounced her claim that there are no political prisoners in Armenia.
Civil Contract deputies defended their candidate. One of them, Vigen Khachatrian, said that Manasian’s work in the Office of the Prosecutor-General on the contrary makes her fit for the post of ombudswoman.
Manasian, 34, was appointed as a deputy prosecutor-general less than five months ago. She previously worked as a deputy rector of Armenia’s Justice Academy and an adviser to two former chairmen of the Constitutional Court. She has also taught constitutional law at Yerevan State University since 2015.
Hayastan and the second parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, had nominate their own candidate for the vacant post, Edgar Ghazarian. The latter is a maverick activist highly critical of the government.
Some Civil Contract deputies shouted verbal abuse and threats at Ghazarian when he appeared before the parliament committee on human rights and harshly criticized Pashinian’s administration last week. One of them pledged to “cut the tongues and ears of anyone” who would make disparaging comments about the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power.
Manasian also attended the committee meeting. Unlike the Armenian opposition and human rights groups, she pointedly declined to criticize those threats.
The previous ombudswoman, Kristine Grigorian, unexpectedly resigned in January after less than a year in office. She too had been installed by the parliament’s pro-government majority. Unlike her outspoken predecessor Arman Tatoyan, Grigorian rarely criticized the government and law-enforcement bodies.
