Armenia keeps denying entry to foreign-based Dashnaks

Activist of the Armenian ultra-nationalist party Dashnaktsutyun (or ARF – Armenian Revolutionary Federation) from Lebanon Areni Markosyan, who is also a US citizen, has been banned from entering Armenia.

“She is not going to leave the Yerevan airport and has gone on a hunger strike. Human rights activists told her that the Armenian authorities had put her on a ‘blacklist’,” Caliber.Az quotes Armenian journalist Hasmik Arakelyan as saying in a message.

"After the journalist's report, the MPs of the National Assembly’s ‘Armenia’ faction Christine Vardanyan and Argishti Gevorgyan went to the ‘Zvartnots’ airport at night. It turned out that another Armenian woman was banned from entering Armenia. Areni Markosyan, an Armenian of Lebanese origin, has been denied to enter the country for more than 12 hours," according to Armenian media.

"We can state that Armenia's doors are closed to Armenians and wide open to enemies," Christine Vardanyan said live from the airport.

In turn, we note that the Armenian authorities purposefully prevent foreign representatives of the ARF ‘Dashnaktsutyun’ from entering the country. Thus, a year ago, ARF Bureau, Co-Chairman of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organisations of France Murad Papazyan was banned from entering Armenia, and last month Aslan Aslanyan, a member of the General Assembly of the ARF ‘Dashnaktsutyun’ of the Netherlands, was denied entry to the country.