Edik Baghdasaryan, the editor of Hetq Online (which sponsors this blog) and the president of the Investigative Journalists of Armenia was honored with the “Defender of Armenia Freedom” award by US Ambassador to Armenia Marie L. Yovanovitch. The award ceremony was held at the US Embassy.
The ambassador noted that “Due to the unprecedented work of Edik Baghdasaryan, it has been possible to uncover cases of corruption, human rights violations and human trafficking, today’s version of slavery.”
Here are excerpts of Edik’s speech:
…it is extremely difficult to sit and ponder the fact that people are being persecuted and arrested in your own country merely for their political convictions, when you reflect that 30% of children are malnourished and go to bed hungry. I would really like to underline this last matter and urge our NGO’s to pay specific attention to the plight of the children. I would go so far to say that child malnourishment is the biggest challenge facing Armenia today. As proof, let me just point out that 40% of all army conscripts have some sort of malady. These kids are the ones going without.
…
Sadly, in Armenia today, the same situation holds true when it comes to other rights as well, starting from environmental rights to the right to a decent education. I never blame society for the state of affairs. It is those higher up the ladder that I hold accountable since there are some problems that could be resolved in an hour with the stroke of a pen. There are many such problems awaiting such resolution. The authorities must possess the political will to act in order to change and reform the situation as quickly as possible [...].
Congratulations to Edik for this honor. He is the hardest working person I personally know in Armenia who is fighting for the basic human rights of all Armenian citizens by reporting on the injustices that ordinary people face in their day-to-day lives.
Ditto that!