Ombudsman says the Armenian authorities' approach is discriminatory and aimed at restricting our activities.

His remarks came on Saturday referring to the authorities' intention to deprive the Human Rights Defender of the constitutional guarantee of financial independence.

According to Arman Tatoyan, the executive branch says that the budget of the Office is passed by the parliament anyway, and it can adopt not the budget of the Government, but the budget presented by the Human Rights Defender.

The Ombudsman noted that this factor, however, will further aggravate the situation, as the institution will be under the influence of the ruling force, given that the opposition does not have leverage in the form of a sufficient number of votes.