"THE AAU LEADER IS PERSONA NON GRATA FOR THE US AUTHORITIES"

A1+
[01:21 pm] 22 June, 2006

Armen Avetisyan, head of AAU was denied entry to the USA in the
US Embassy on June 22. Armen Avetisyan (and a member of AAU Youth
and Students’ Organization Council) got a 15-day invitation from
"Armenian Ethnic Organization" in order to meet with the Armenian
community and deliver lectures on national ideology and history.

The invitation of 2005 on the same purpose was approved and the AAU
leader stayed in America for a month. Armen Avetisyan participated in
20 TV programs, held two meetings with the Armenian community and had
separate meetings with organizations and individuals during his visit.

According to our data, AAU expressed its doubt in connection with
the denial as the questions put forward by the Embassy were apparent
last year as well when Armen Avetisyan was conditionally released
from the courtroom.

The AAU statement says, "The US authorities who constantly speak of
speech freedom and consider their country a free one are concerned with
the following issues; why Armen Avetisyan was condemned and when will
his term expire, what is the opinion of the AAU leader about the Jews,
why the complete list of the homosexual officials hasn’t been made
public yet, what was the aim of Armen Avetisyan’s visit to Iran and
what is the aim of his visit to the USA now, why the USA leader met
only with the representatives of the Armenian community and whether
his audience was large."

"We express our complaint on the USA government denial and demand
them to motivate their absurd explanation which is as follows, "We
don’t want you to say in the USA whatever you say in your country…"

"We are convinced that this denial has political grounds and is
incoherent of the country which considers itself a superpower,"
concludes the AAU Council.