Armenia isn’t bringing the Lebanese-Armenians to the country. They are the ones who are coming. If Armenia brought them, repatriation would be at the state level. This is what High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia Zareh Sinanyan told reporters in parliament today.

“Currently, there are some Lebanese-Armenians who prefer to come and settle in their historic homeland,” he said.

When told that there was a time when Syrian-Armenians also came to Armenia, but left Armenia for Europe, Sinanyan said the following: “Of course, the practice of the Syrian-Armenians was rather problematic. Armenia suffered losses since the government wasn’t prepared, but even in the best cases, for instance, in the case of Israel, not all the Jews who left for Israel after the collapse of the former USSR stayed in Israel, and many of them left for Canada, the US and other countries.”