YEREVAN, ARMENIA – On Friday, the Pashinyan regime provided its supposed reason for denying French-Armenian community leader Mourad Papazian from entering Armenia eight days earlier. The official press agency of the Armenian government claimed that Armenia’s authorities had banned Papazian from entering Yerevan and sent him on a flight back to Paris on July 14 because he had allegedly organized an “attack” on Pashinyan’s motorcade, during his visit to Paris on June 1, 2021. This despite the fact that according to various sources, Papazian had visited Yerevan at least four times since Pashinyan’s 2021 trip to France. Papazian had even participated in an Armenian opposition rally in Yerevan in May of this year.
The government press agency claims that French-Armenian protestors had thrown “various objects” at Pashinyan’s motorcade as it made its way through Paris. It justified its banning of Papazian’s entry citing an Armenian law that allows a ban of foreigners that pose a threat to Armenia’s “state security or public order.”
Mourad Papazian is the co-chairman of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organization’s of France (CCAF) and a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s Bureau, the executive body of the pan-Armenian party, which opposes the Pashinyan regime for its pro-Turkish and anti-Artsakh positions.
Papazian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that Pashinyan’s regime is lying and that he had not participated in that protest.
The CCAF, opposition leaders in Armenia, and several Diaspora organizations have raised outrage at the ban imposed on Papazian, describing it as a “brutal blow” to Armenia-Diaspora relations and an “attack on democracy” itself.
The ARF Western United States of America Central Committee also issued a statement last week denouncing the Pashinyan regime’s action, stating that “this government, especially since the destructive 44-day war, has proven almost daily that it is not just committed to implementing a program that causes damage and destruction to Artsakh, Armenia and the Armenian people, but is also ready to impede the work of any Armenian who stands against their course of state destruction, or does not agree with them.”
