2005 summarised for Armenia

"What is going on in a number of CIS states is very much like a restoration of the Soviet Union. How Putin acts suppressing freedom of speech and nongovernmental organisations looks very much like the USSR to me. As for Robert Kocharian, Lukashenka, and Nazarbayev, they are the litmus paper of what used to be in the Soviet Union," human rights defender Mikael Danielian, Chairman of the Helsinki Association, said in an interview for Caucasian Knot's correspondent. He noted that he would not be surprised if "working people" from an Armenian city wrote a letter to President Kocharian with a request for him to run for a third term.

In this respect, the human rights defender mentioned the 27 November referendum aiming to amend the Constitution with a view to providing Robert Kocharian with an opportunity to run for a third term.

According to him, the Helsinki Association also has a considerable amount of information about large-scale use of torture at police stations: "There are facts of torture in all cases we work on." Killings in the Armenian army also cause great concerns to the activist. Over 100 people have been killed in the army, according to the association's information, although the official statistics are 85.

• Public Chamber criticises amendments to NGO legislation