YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. Azerbaijan is trying to turn the field of human rights protection into one of the main dimensions of its information war, and in many cases the Ombudsman of Armenia has to become, in some sense, a national and political figure at international organizations instead of speaking about human rights. The Ombudsman of the Republic of Armenia Armen Harutyunian stated this during the February 10 press conference. "We are at total information war, and I appeal to the public to take it into account and to act as one fist," he said, adding: "Willy-nilly, each of us must also support our national interests because human rights and the national and state interests are interwoven." At the same time A. Harutyunian underlined that this unity should not be mechanical: the state machinery should really address the needs of ordinary citizen. He reminded that months ago the ombudsman of Nagorno Karabakh had become a member of the European Ombudsman Institute, after which Azerbaijan, through its ambassadors, friends and parliaments of other countries, "launched serious attacks", seeking cancellation of the Karabakh ombudsman's membership, but in vain. "This prompted us to discuss a version of membership for ombudsmen of the other unrecognized states, as human rights are above current politics," A. Harutyunian said, stressing that the de facto formed, but de jure unrecognized states also face human rights problems so there is necessity to discuss and solve them.

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