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Alexandre Varbedian – “Blacklisted” for 5 Years |
Since 2002, entry into Armenia has been
prohibited for French-Armenian ontologist and
genealogist Alexandre Arord Varbedian. Vardbedian, who
had moved from France to Soviet Armenia at the age of
five and received his education in Yerevan, moved back
to his birthplace of Marseille in 1975. Although he
acquired French citizenship, he also kept his Soviet
passport with him. After Armenia's independence, that
transformed to Armenian citizenship at his own request.
However, a law abolishing dual citizenship was
passed in 1994 and Varbedian was deprived of his
Armenian citizenship three years later. However, in the
period from 1998 to 1999 and then from 1999 to 2002,
Varbedian lived in Armenia thanks to residence permits
he acquired through the Armenian Ministry of Education
and Science as well as the Ministry of Culture. In 2002,
his permit was not extended and no reason was cited for
the rejection.
A1+ wrote the following in 2002 in that regard –
The deadline on the Armenian residence permit of the
President of the Essence Union, French citizen Alexandre
Varbedian, has expired. Alexandre Varbedian has been
told that he will no longer be given permission to
reside in Armenia because he belonged to a sect. “The
Essence Union is ready to collaborate with the Armenian
Apostolic Church,” Varbedian assured, but such proposals
have not been met with a reply. The Union has proposed a
program called Nation and New Millennium. According to
Union members, this is a sanative program that has been
planned for years, meant to keep society from
foolishness and sin.
In August 2003, the Department for Pardons,
Citizenship, Awards and Titles, within the President's
staff, refused Varbedian's application for a ten-year
paid residence permit in Armenia. Since then,
Varbedian's three electronic tourist visa applications
have been refused and, on two occasions, invitation
letters from his son, Artur Varbedian, have been
rejected without a reason cited.
In February 2005, Varbedian wrote an open letter
to the Armenian Government, but there was no reply. In
May of the same year, he sent the first Ombudsman Larisa
Alaverdyan a letter. After studying the case, Alaverdyan
wrote a letter to Alvina Zakaryan, head of the Passport
and Visa Department of the Armenian Police. She replied
that Artur Varbedian had come to them to submit an
invitation letter for his father's visit to Armenia. In
accordance with procedure, Varbedian's documents had
been sent to the corresponding agencies for approval.
But, according to the reply received, the French
citizen's visit to Armenia was considered inappropriate.
Ombudsman Alaverdyan was confident that the
department mentioned was “not authorized to judge
whether the visit was appropriate and should have
provided the applicant with the legislative reasons that
served as the basis for the rejection.” At the same
time, Alaverdyan noted that there was an international
practice of not providing any explanations in the event
of rejection, but felt that a renowned person like
Alexandre Varbedian should not have been treated in this
way.
Alaverdyan suggested that Alvina Zakaryan and the
Chief of Police review the case and present the reasons
for rejection if they came to the same conclusion. But
this suggestion was never followed up. Now, with Armen
Harutyunyan as Ombudsman, this case is considered
closed, because the letter from Varbedian was just a
message, not a complaint (in case of complaints, the
case remains open until it is resolved).
Varbedian's son Artur wrote a letter to then
Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan in 2006. In order to
study the case, the Ministry requested the corresponding
documents, as well as Alexandre Varbedian's unpublished
work National Cross-Stone (The Enigma of October 27) .
The author insisted that this book had been destroyed
because “Armenian society was not ready for it.”
Sargsyan gave a few orders in connection with the
application, but nothing changed.
At the request of Artur Varbedian, the
“blacklist” in the computers at Armenia's border
crossings were examined by a high ranking official and
revealed that Alexandre Varbedian's name was not
present. At the same time, according to newly
established procedure, it had become possible to get a
21-day visa at the Armenian border. Alexandre Varbedian
decided with his son to come to Armenia through Georgia
but then changed his mind and decided to apply for a
visa and fly to Yerevan. But the Armenian Embassy in
France rejected his visa application. Artur went to the
border official again.
“The border official said that after one crosses
the border, one has to go to the Passport and Visa
Department and apply for a visa. He said that the
‘blacklist' at the border and the department is the
same. But this case is unique because my father's name
is only on the department's ‘blacklist.' That would mean
that he would be able to cross the border at Bagratashen,
but then the visa office in Yerevan would refuse his
visa. The border official told me that this was
unprecedented,” said Artur Varbedian.
“The border official concluded that the last name
of Varbedian is perhaps in a special ‘blacklist' of
names, condemned to remaining there forever for unknown
reasons,” said Alexandre Varbedian.
Having been kept away from Armenia forcibly for
five years, Alexandre Varbedian wrote another open
letter to the Armenian President on May 30, “without any
real expectations, but simply to be convinced that the
true reason behind all this lies within the President's
office…” |
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Vahe Sarukhanyan |
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