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Lawyer Yervand Varosyan claims the Armenian political authorities continue usurping all branches of power, including the judicial system, adding repressions will likely increase in the country in 2024.

"Armenia has a lot of political prisoners There are people held behind bars for their Facebook posts, a lot of people are persecuted for their statements, oppositionists are constantly facing persecution. At the same time, those taking a pro-government stance are protected. In these conditions, it is completely unnecessary to speak about the rule of law," Varosyan told Panorama.am in an interview on Thursday.

In response to the remark that the West and international organizations refrain from criticizing human rights violations in Armenia, the lawyer noted: “Why should we care about the assessments of the West, the East, the North or the South? These are ordinary political assessments related to the foreign policy pursued by the authorities. I am absolutely not interested in such political assessments. I see what is happening in Armenia.”

He states that lawlessness is running rampant in Armenia.

“It’s not that everything was perfect in the past. But, of course, the situation was not like this: at least attempts were made to hide what was going on under the veil of law, now there are not even such attempts. The worst thing is that repression has become a tool in Armenia and it’s of little importance who and when uses it,” the lawyer added.

Varosyan believes there is “no turning back” for the Armenian authorities who “have set upon the path of dictatorship and usurpation of power”.

“They will have to resort to tougher repressions. There is no other option. We are going to see much worse repressions and pressure primarily targeting their political opponents. Pressure against the judiciary is also possible, although I believe that the judicial system already fulfills all orders by the authorities,” he remarked.