Pashinyan Publishes Letter Addressed to Him and Orders an Internal Investigation

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has published a letter addressed to him by a citizen on his Facebook page. The Prime Minister redirected the letter to several officials. Pashinyan noted, "This morning I received the letter presented below from Maria Ghanaghyan. After reading the letter, I first called the author to thank her for writing this letter, and I received permission to publish it on my Facebook page, then I forwarded the letter to several officials with the following note: 'Dear Sirs, please read this letter to understand what disgraceful things are happening in our country.'

1. To Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan: urgently remove the procedural issues from the letter that require normative regulation and start the regulatory process;
2. To Acting Head of the Police Arman Sargsyan: initiate an internal investigation regarding the described incidents of disgraceful poor performance by the Passport and Visa Department; punish all those responsible, at least with termination. Contact the author of the letter, obtain detailed explanations regarding the difficulties faced at the Passport and Visa Department, recognize poor workers and dismiss them;
3. To Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan: assign an internal investigation concerning the activities of the mentioned subdivision of the Civil Status Registration Agency (CCRA) and dismiss negligent employees;
4. To Head of the Diaspora Affairs Agency Zareh Sinanyan: conduct discussions and inquiries among repatriates regarding their difficulties and problems, prepare an appropriate agenda and transfer it to Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, who should lead the process of solving these issues;
5. To Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister Eduard Aghajanyan: monitor the implementation of this instruction.

Dear compatriots, below I present the full letter from Maria Ghanaghyan:

Dear Mr. Nikol Pashinyan, Mr. Zareh Sinanyan,
My name is Maria Ghanaghyan. I recently repatriated from Canada. I would like to share my experience of repatriation with you.

After the Velvet Revolution of 2018, we were extremely motivated. Finally, a decision was made to return to our homeland. I was born in Yerevan, Armenia, and left in 1999. My husband is a Diaspora Armenian who has lived in Canada since childhood. We have two daughters who were born and raised in Toronto, Canada. My eldest daughter graduated from high school in Toronto in 2019 and was admitted to the American University of Armenia. We moved in the summer of 2019, and my daughter started her first year at the AUA. We are extremely proud that our daughter is receiving her higher education in Armenia.

We are Canadian citizens, and it was time for us to apply for Armenian citizenship and obtain a passport. I left Armenia in 1999 when the country did not have dual citizenship, thus I automatically lost my Armenian citizenship and registration. It was time to reclaim Armenian citizenship.

My ordeal began at the Police Passport and Visa Department. The issue was that after having children, I adopted my husband’s surname. The representatives at the Passport and Visa Department told me they could not assist me unless I brought a corresponding certificate from Canada verifying that I changed my surname 20 years ago with an apostille. Apostille is not applied in Canada, and such documents are not issued.

For several weeks, I wandered between the offices of the Passport and Visa Department. They suggested I go to the section of the Civil Status Registration Agency where we registered our marriage; perhaps they could help. I went to the CCRA located next to the main post office on Saryan Street. The woman there, who had held her position for at least the last 20 years, treated me very poorly. She demanded the same certificate from Canada. When I said Canada does not issue such certificates, she said, 'I don’t know anything, and such documents are issued in the USA.'

I explained that Canada is a different country with different laws. She said she could not help me and that I should not have returned to Armenia, and I would do well to return to where I came from. Already after 4 months of fruitlessly trying to understand where I could go and who could help me, I was told at the OVIR that unfortunately, they could not assist without the corresponding certificate from Canada or the CCRA. It was a dead end.

In despair, I was running from one office to another in the Passport and Visa Department, asking where to go and who could help. Five months after my arrival, someone at the Passport and Visa Department suggested I go to the 4th floor and speak with the lawyers there. For the first time, someone mentioned they had lawyers and might be able to assist me. To my surprise, they were very kind and helpful. They suggested I go to the Ministry of Justice.

At the Ministry, they managed to change my surname in my marriage certificate within a month. It took me 5 months to find an institution that could help me. For 5 months, I ran around the Passport and Visa Department, and not one person told me I needed to go to the ministry. This took an enormous amount of time and resources from me.

The institution that was supposed to help and provide advice did neither. The long and chaotic queues and the derision of some employees were frustrating and exhausting. One employee at the Passport and Visa Department even went so far as to ask why I had come to Armenia from Canada, saying, 'Pashinyan deceived us all.' Such treatment and statements are absolutely unacceptable.

The fact that my daughter was at the American University kept me from returning to Canada. After 5 months of coming to Armenia, my documents were finally ready, and I could apply for a passport. The little I know is that no one can obtain a passport without registration in Armenia. My daughter and I still do not have a home, and I asked my landlord for permission to register at his house to obtain a passport. However, he denied my request.

Thus, my question is this: how can a person obtain a passport if they still do not have a home and locals are very afraid to register strangers in their homes, even if it does not give them any rights over their property? If someone does not have registration, they cannot obtain a social identification card. And if you do not have a social identification card, you cannot buy a house, you cannot buy a car, you cannot work, and you cannot open a bank account. Essentially, you cannot obtain a passport without registration and you cannot get a social identification card without a passport. This is a dead end; the system has failed. There are huge gaps in the old bureaucratic laws that were enacted, as I have been told, in the 1960s.

Instead of focusing on implementing my skills, experiences, and knowledge in Armenia, I have failed in a system where people simply did not want to help me or did not know how to help. Many state institution employees are absolutely unprepared to assist and solve problems. They are not effective at all. Many of them do not speak English, and during my long wait in the Passport and Visa Department, I had to translate (several times) for other Diaspora Armenians whose Eastern Armenian was not very good. There is lacking appropriate communication. The current laws and system are not helpful or effective. Those responsible for assisting people like us are absolutely unhelpful.

Knowing the necessary protocols, rules of conduct, and simply the procedure is a crucial part of our mutual success in Armenia. Government bodies must ensure that the staff responsible for the smooth transition of repatriation is fully qualified for it. Having navigated through a broken system myself, I can help to clarify, identify those sources. Only through constructive dialogue, exchanging ideas, listening, understanding, and respect can we succeed.

I am writing to you hoping that you will listen, understand and appreciate the serious challenges I have faced and implement the necessary changes to make it easier for people like me who have made an incredibly difficult decision to leave their established and comfortable lives to start a new life in our homeland. I love my country and believe in its potential. I believe in the power of constructive dialogue and work. Armenia needs people like us, and we need Armenia. Only by working together can we succeed and help Armenia thrive. I want those who are ready to repatriate to Armenia to feel confident that Armenia is ready for them. Many of us are not prominent figures. We are intelligent and educated people who have succeeded elsewhere and now want to accomplish the same in our homeland. Unfortunately, in my case, Armenia was not ready for me, and I felt the full force of the broken system.

I want repatriation to be easy, clear, and simple for all parties involved. There are difficult circumstances, and cases vary, but one thing is clear that there are huge gaps in the system that prevent new returnees from focusing on what truly matters and why they are here in the first place. As I mentioned, I believe in the potential of Armenia and am ready to stay, work, and contribute. My dream is that when people from the Diaspora ask me whether it’s worth it, my answer will be, 'Yes, Armenia is ready.'