Armenian Officials Fabricate Reasons for Barring Papazyan's Entry, Says Sasounian

The publisher of the "California Courier," Harut Sasounian, has commented on the ban preventing Murad Papazyan from entering Armenia. According to Aravot.am, he specifically wrote: “Last week, I wrote about a high-profile incident where Armenian officials did not allow the leader of the French-Armenian community, Murad Papazyan, who has dedicated his life to defending the Armenian cause, to enter Armenia upon arriving at Yerevan airport. Despite his repeated questions at the airport regarding why Armenian officials were blocking his entry, he did not receive any answers. Now, let me comment on the recent developments in this case.

Initially, state officials told the media that they could not disclose the reason for Papazyan's expulsion to respect his right to privacy. When Armenia's Chief Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan was first asked why Papazyan was barred from entering the country, he said he had no idea. Sinanyan then mistakenly claimed that the organization headed by Papazyan, the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF), does not have the right to represent the entire French-Armenian community as it is only one organization. Contrary to Sinanyan's statement, the CCAF is not just a single organization but a coalition of about 60 French-Armenian organizations.

Later, one of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's anonymous assistants gave an extensive interview to the Armenpress agency, insisting that Papazyan was barred from entering Armenia for violating sections 8.1.g and 8.1.z of the Law of the Republic of Armenia on Foreigners. The assistant continued to assert that Papazyan was among those who attacked Pashinyan's motorcade on June 1, 2021, in Paris. What happened to the government's initial justification that they could not disclose the reason for Papazyan's expulsion to protect his right to privacy?

The real reason for his expulsion is the Prime Minister's intolerance toward anyone who dares to oppose his regime. Here are the facts: I confirmed that Papazyan was not involved in any attack on Pashinyan's motorcade because he was not there. The protest was executed by a group of young people who unfortunately threw tomatoes at Pashinyan's convoy. It is inappropriate to do such things against the leader of Armenia on foreign soil. Nevertheless, the Armenian government considered the incident so insignificant that the Embassy of Armenia in Paris did not even lodge a complaint with the French authorities.

Second, it is very strange that after the incident involving the motorcade in Paris on June 1, 2021, Papazyan visited Armenia on four different occasions, and nobody at Yerevan airport impeded his entry. If the Prime Minister's assistant takes his baseless accusations against Papazyan seriously, then why did the government not prohibit his entry into Armenia for an entire year but only during his fifth visit? Thus, the Prime Minister's assistant acknowledges that Armenian officials are so incompetent that they cannot appropriately execute their own decisions. Furthermore, Pashinyan's assistant falsely claimed that the media published articles about the Paris incident, including videos on the internet showing Papazyan and others protesting. The fact is that there are no such videos showing Papazyan's involvement in that protest solely because he was not there. If such footage existed, the Armenian government would have widely disseminated it to prove Papazyan's guilt.

Since the Prime Minister's assistant justified Papazyan's accusation based on sections 8.1.g and 8.1.z of the Law on Foreigners, I was curious that the same Article 8, Clause 6, mentions only the following state officials who can act regarding the black list of those barred from entering Armenia: “the Office of the President of the Republic of Armenia, the National Security Service, authorized officers of the police, officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, courts, and the prosecutor's office.”

It is important to note that neither the Prime Minister himself nor his assistants are listed among the officials authorized to enter the black list. Where did the Prime Minister's assistant learn that Papazyan's name is on the black list, and why was his entry to the country barred? This is a blatant violation of the law, the very law invoked by the Prime Minister's assistant to justify Papazyan's entry ban. In a truly democratic country, this assistant and his superiors would be held criminally liable for breaking the law. What has been done to Papazyan is an abuse of power. Armenia is not Pashinyan's private estate; he cannot decide who to let in and who to bar.

Finally, while the government is busy blocking the entry of a patriotic Armenian, a widely circulated video on social media shows a Turkish extremist in Yerevan's Armenian Genocide Memorial making a lewd gesture, screaming like a wolf, hysterically laughing, mocking the Genocide, and making the hand gesture of Turkey's "Grey Wolves" terrorist organization while holding a flag of the Turkish football club featuring the crescent moon and star, symbols of the Republic of Turkey. Although the police do not always manage to prevent such grotesque incidents, if Armenian officials were not so busy silencing their political opponents, they would have more time to deal with the true enemies of the Armenian nation. How ironic it is that a nationalist Armenian is banned from entering Armenia while a Turkish extremist is allowed in and allowed to insult the memory of the martyrs of the Genocide. It would be much better for Armenian officials to tell the truth by admitting that Papazyan should not have been expelled from Armenia instead of concocting new lies to cover their initial mistake.