The political liberalization initiated by Nikol Pashinyan has had a positive impact on Nagorno-Karabakh, where competition has increased and civil society has become more active. This is the assessment given by the human rights organization Freedom House in its report “Freedom in the World – 2020.”
The section of the authoritative organization’s report pertaining to Armenia presents exclusively the positive developments recorded in Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to the report, thanks to the changes that took place in Armenia, “ahead of the September 2019 local self-government elections, there was an increase in competition and civil society activity in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and a platform was also created for other changes in the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The report notes that the opposite picture prevails in the other breakaway territories of the Eurasian region. “The other breakaway territories of the Eurasian region, which are occupied by Russian forces, continue to remain stagnant, with a decline in political rights and civil liberties recorded there,” compare the human rights advocates of Freedom House.
According to the organization’s rating table, both Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia are classified among the partly free countries. In the list of unrecognized states in the region, apart from Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia is also assessed as partly free. Armenia, by its indicators, surpasses unfree Azerbaijan, but yields to its other partly free neighbor, Georgia.
