Expert: There could hardly be protests in Armenia
The video about the situation in Georgian prisons, which has recently shocked the public, was not unexpected. «In the last three years Georgia's human rights ombudsman has always raised this problem, saying that such phenomena can be observed in prisons, but nobody paid attention. All this shows that not everything is OK in Georgia, » says Johnny Mellikyan, an expert in Georgian studies.
According to him, ten out of those who committed cruel acts have been arrested, but the man who spread the video (he is currently abroad) has also been detained.
«The scandal was followed by resignations of several ministers. Young people staged protests. This strengthened the opposition's position and, of course, affected the authorities' ratings, » Mr. Melikyan notes.
He did not rule out that there might be Armenians among those subjected to beating because a criminal has no nationality. He added that the incident is unlikely to have an impact on the Armenian community. «It will not impact the Armenian-Georgian relations. The Armenian community has condemned this inhuman attitude».
In response to the question of A1+: «In case of such scandals in Armenian prisons, will this affect the domestic political situation and the elections?», Mr. Melikyan gave an affirmative answer.
«However, the two countries differ in terms of the peculiarities of their elections.A minister may resign (but not several ones), but there could hardly be any protest actions. In any case, such a thing cannot happen in our prisons since in our country this sphere is in a better state. Approximately 65 people have died in Armenian prisons in the last two years. 282 convicts have died in Georgia in the same period," the expert in Georgian studies underlined.
As regards the upcoming parliamentary elections in Georgia and the involvement of the Armenian community in this process, J. Melikyan expressed an opinion that the Armenian community plays a small, passive role.
"True, there are Armenians in both the authorities and the opposition, but Armenians are not actively involved".
