In the Human Freedom Index (HFI) report published by the Cato Institute operating in the US, Armenia was ranked 26th, Georgia 43rd, Azerbaijan 131st, and Turkiye 130th. Among other Turkic states, Kyrgyzstan is ranked 87th and Kazakhstan is ranked 107th.

In this regard, the state officials in Armenia evaluated the fact that this country was awarded the 26th place in the Human Freedom Index as a great success. Sara Anjargolian, adviser on reform/management/diaspora in the public sector of Armenia, NGO specialist, also shared a post on her X profile.   

Faktyoxla Lab. (Factcheking Lab.) has examined the details of the report prepared by the Cato Institute.

First of all, as a result of research, it became clear that the Cato Institute's Human Freedom Index report was last published on February 4, 2023.

That is, the report that the Armenian officials shared with great pride in October is from 2022 and is old.

Secondly, as a result of the investigation, it became clear that the Human Freedom Index -2022 report does not reflect a fair and honest assessment of human freedom in the countries of the world. All the assessments made about Armenia in the report are another manifestation of bias and fraud, the place of Azerbaijan and Turkiye in the report is a clear example of double standards, and it is a demonstration of anti-Turkiye, anti-Azerbaijani position. The fact that Armenia is presented as a free and democratic country in an undemocratic environment completely calls into question the objectivity of the rating report.

In order to get a general idea, we present news headlines about the state of human rights, press and courts in Armenia in 2022, taken only from the media:

Thirdly, the leadership of the Cato Institute, which was founded by Edward Crane in San Francisco, California, and whose activities are shaped by donations and assistance from various corporations and foundations, has continuously shown a biased and hypocritical position against Turkiye.

The Cato Institute is one of the biased international organizations that promoted US President Joe Biden's use of the so-called "Armenian genocide" in April 2021 as a great victory. In the article titled "With Turkiye, the problem is NATO membership, not Armenia" published by this research center, prejudice and slander against Turkiye can be easily perceived.

It is known that the Fraser Institute and Brownstone Institute, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and other NGOs in the US benefited from the Human Freedom Index report presented by the Cato Institute. One of them, Lucio Saverio-Eastman, the co-founder of the Brownstone Institute, somehow shared the report published by the Cato Institute at the beginning of the year on X (formerly Twitter) on October 21, 2023 as new information, declaring that Armenia is democratic in ensuring human and other freedoms, and Turkiye and Azerbaijan are not.

During the investigation, it became clear that the director of the institute regularly accuses Azerbaijan and Turkiye of committing "genocide" against Armenians

and presents himself as a bigot of Armenians.

The list of such slanderous and anti-Turkish articles can be extended, and after the real picture that emerged, it is no coincidence that the Cato Institute, a close partner of the Brownstone Institute headed by L. Saverio-Eastman, prepares the current human freedom rating under the dictates of certain centers, and Armenia is specially pushed up in the Human Freedom Index -2022.

Fourth, the four co-authors who prepared that report - Ian Vasquez, vice president and director of international research at the Cato Institute, Fred McMahon, director of the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Ryan Murphy, director of the Center for Globalization Studies at the Fraser Institute, professor at the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom at Southern Methodist University, and Cato Institute researcher Guillermina Sutter Schneider.

One of the authors, Ian Vasquez, works together with FETÖ member Mustafa Akyol, who is known for his anti-Turkiye and anti-Azerbaijani writings at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.

There is no need to explain in detail where the obvious prejudice against Turkiye and Azerbaijan is formed in the report.

Fifth, although the Cato institute was among the 20 most powerful think tanks in the world between 2012 and 2020, it has left the "top think-thank" rankings in the last two-three years. One of the reasons for this decline is probably the biased and unfair approach in the reports of the organization in recent years. source

Thus,

- The Human Freedom Index report prepared by the Cato Institute, which Armenian officials proudly shared, is not new, but represents the results of 2022;

- Sympathy of the authors of the report for Armenia, open bias and unfair approach to Azerbaijan and Turkiye were manifested in the non-objective calculation of the evaluations;

- The fact that the Cato Institute was not included in the "top think-thank" list in recent years is also related to a biased and unfair approach in the reports.