Freedom House did not respond to domestic political processes in Armenia

Today, on the morning of May 20, at the request of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, citizens blocked the entrances to courts, not allowing the judges and other court staff to enter and leave the court buildings.

In this regard, the Twitter post by Nate Schenkkan, Director of Special Research at Freedom House international human rights organization, about the current situation in Armenia and the ongoing processes was disseminated by Armenian media outlets.

In particular, Schenkkan wrote: “The danger in post-revolutionary Armenia was always that Pashinyan, lacking the ability to transform the country quickly or sustainably, would fall back on the populism that got him into power. Here we are.“

A number of media outlets present this post as the official statement and position of Freedom House. However, it should be noted that Freedom House has not issued any official statement. There is no publication on the current situation in Armenia neither on the Twitter page nor on the official website of the organization. This statement is the person’s personal position.

It should also be noted that in time Schenkkan published other posts on Armenia, which, however, in some cases was problematic.

For example, in February 2019, he wrote on his Twitter page that 100,000 Armenian immigrants were deported from Turkey, which is not true.