YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the Freedom House international organization's report under the title Freedom in the World, this year also Armenia has appeared among "partly free" countries among 193 countries. Shushan Khatlamajian, the Coordinator of programs of the Institute of Civil Society and Regional Development, reported at the January 19 press conference. According to the report, among 193 countries 89 or 46% are free, 62 or 32% are partly free, 42 or 22% not free. Among Armenia's neighbors Georgia is among partly free countries and Azerbaijan not free countries. An estimation is given to a country's political and civil rights on the scale of 1-7 points as a result of the study (the lower is the point the better). This year Armenia has received 5 and 4 points, respectively, and Azerbaijan 6 and 5 points. S. Khatlamajian said that a study was also conducted in 16 countries not recognized by UN, including NKR. Thus, NKR was also considered a partly free country, 5 points were given for country's political and 5 for civil rights. According to S. Khatlamajian's observation, some estimations of the study do not correspond to reality or are presented too strictly. In particular, the report mentioned that not all rights of national minorities are respected in Armenia, while the report on Georgia mentioned nothing about it. In her opinion, a number of international organizations conducting studies, including Freedom House, have very direct and perceptible political goals: they make an attempt to create an atmosphere of public disagreement with such surveys. In that respect, in S. Khatlamajian's opinion, one can suppose that "Armenia's opposition feels West's support very well."

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