Artsvik Minasyan: Our security problems are many, and the National Security Service should deal with them instead of refusing the Armenian Cause defenders entry into Armenia
The Administrative Court recently upheld the claims filed by ARF Bureau member Mourad Papazian and Masis Abrahamyan against the National Security Service of Armenia (RA NSS). The court held that the ban on their entry into Armenia should be lifted. The ban was imposed in 2022.
“If the NSS shows common sense and does not appeal against the court decision, it will come into force,” MP Artsvik Minasyan said this to ABC Media.
The MP expressed hope that the NSS will remove the names of these people from the persona non grata list, and thus, they will be able to come to their homeland.
“If the NSS protests against the court decision, it will not come into force, and the case will be brought to the Court of Cassation,” Minasyan said.
He urged the NSS officers to fight not against the law, but for the law.
“There are so many security problems facing our country, and they are so diverse that the issue of the protection of rights of our citizens, our state, and our statehood requires that we discuss deeper issues, but not the restriction of the Armenian Cause defenders’ entry into the country,” the MP said.
Artsvik Minasyan noted that there were other cases as well when Armenians were refused entry into the country.
“There were cases when, especially during Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s time in office, people were not only refused entry into the country, but they were also declared personae non gratae and asked to leave the country. We witnessed such cases during the previous presidents’ time in government as well, but these measures were not imposed on people engaged in the Armenian Cause activities. Such incidents occurred neither under Robert Koraryan’s rule nor under Serzh Sargsyan’s rule,” he said.
Minasyan noted that even in the period of the Armenia-Turkey protocols, when the proposals put forward by Serzh Sargsyan met with fierce opposition, the restriction of a Diaspora Armenian fighter’s entry into Armenia was never considered.
“There were people who were denied entry on other grounds and for other reasons, being accused or suspected of certain things. But never was anyone refused entry for defending the interests of their homeland, or worse still, for criticizing the president or the head of the country. The claims of these authorities that our compatriots showed disrespectful attitudes toward their cars in the Netherlands, in France or in other countries does not give them the right for such decisions. Moreover, no legal proceedings have been brought in the above-mentioned countries in connection with a protest and a disciplinary offense,” he said.
