Report of a Crime: Postanjyan Has Filed a Complaint with Law Enforcement

The "Country of the Heart" political party has approached the Prosecutor General of Armenia, the Police Chief of Armenia, the Director of the National Security Service, and the Ombudsman regarding the illegal installation, operation, and significant extortion at the "Zvartnots" International Airport by Armenia's Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan, Director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases Vardan Avagyan and Deputy Director Naira Stepanyan, and other officials.

In the arrivals hall of Yerevan's "Zvartnots" International Airport, there is a control checkpoint where workers carry out inspections on individuals entering Armenia, violating existing legislation. They demand certificates from travelers arriving in Armenia proving either a negative PCR test for COVID-19 or full vaccination against COVID-19. The authenticity of the required documents is verified arbitrarily, without QR code checks. They assess the presented certificates as invalid and demand a payment ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 drams on-site in order to allow individuals to exit the hall. Those who refuse this payment are threatened with hospitalization and isolation.

As travelers arriving from Germany, a member of the European Union, with valid vaccination certificates issued by France, my husband and I were informed that our certificates were recognized by the Armenian government, supported by the decision of the Armenian government N 1514 from September 11, 2021. However, on November 20, 2021, at around 4:00 AM, after we had passed through all checkpoints and entered the arrivals hall, we were presented with an illegal demand for payment. We refused to comply.

The checkpoint workers rejected our request to verify our certificate's QR code through the appropriate device and application. Instead, we were illegally detained, deprived of our freedom for about 7 hours in the arrivals hall, after which police officers and Lazo Antonian transported us to "Infectious Diseases National Center" LLC's Avan Hospital for hospitalization, where we were not admitted and subsequently taken to "Infectious Diseases National Center" LLC's Nork Hospital. The hospital's Deputy Director Naira Stepanyan examined our certificates and claimed that EU-issued certificates are not valid in Armenia. After facing these illegal actions, Stepanyan, Antonian, and police officers freed us around 4:00 PM in the yard of the Nork Hospital.

Officials with jurisdiction over epidemic control have essentially imposed a toll on individuals arriving via the "Zvartnots" airport. Those who oppose this fee face threats of hospitalization; even if they do not accept such threats, they are deprived of their freedom for hours and later released or isolated in hospitals designated for COVID-19 patients. This reflects a clear corrupt mechanism involving the Minister of Health, the National Center for Infectious Diseases, the Police Department of Yerevan at Zvartnots Airport, and the public health inspectorate.

The aforementioned four state institutions in Armenia are extorting millions of dollars from individuals through fraud and coercion, following mafia-like rules. Those who do not comply are imprisoned and forced into COVID-19 facilities. This chain is ready to kill those infected with COVID-19 without providing medical assistance and to endanger the health of healthy individuals by exposing them to the virus. Vardan Avagyan, the director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, already has a conviction for the mass infection of people with Hepatitis C, which resulted in serious harm to several citizens' health. He is also known for storing the bodies of those killed during the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh in the basement of the tuberculosis dispensary in Abovyan while he was the director.

In light of these facts, I demand immediate action to close the illegal "checkpoint" in the arrivals hall of Yerevan's "Zvartnots" airport and to prosecute and detain Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan, Director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases Vardan Avagyan, Deputy Director Naira Stepanyan, Police Department Chief Sergey Manukyan, Head of the Medical Sanitary Inspection Point at Zvartnots Airport Mesrop Bznuni, and the inspector Lazo Antonian.