AYF Washington D.C. “Ani” Chapter member and AYF-YOARF ER Central Executive member Areni Margossian delivering her speech to the crowd of protesters in front of the White House on January 21, 2023 (Photo: AYF Washington D.C. “Ani” treasurer Kristine Antanesian)

Areni Margossian, a member of the Armenian Youth Federation-Youth Organization of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (AYF-YOARF) Eastern Region Central Executive and the AYF Washington D.C. “Ani” Chapter, was denied entry to Armenia on August 1. 

Margossian arrived at Zvartnots airport in Yerevan on the morning of August 1, en route to join a team of hikers to climb Mount Ararat. Her passport was confiscated by border control agents without an explanation. She was held at the airport for 24 hours before she was deported to the United Arab Emirates.

Margossian said everything seemed fine when she landed in Yerevan on Tuesday morning. “I could see Ararat from the plane,” she told the Weekly. Yet her passport set off an alert after it was scanned at border security. She was taken to a room in the airport, where she was held for over four hours. 

Two families came and went from the holding room. Margossian pressed the border control officers to explain why they had been released, while she was still being held without explanation. An officer told her that one of the families had been sent upstairs, which he said was a bad sign. 

She got in touch with the ARF Bureau Office of Youth Affairs in Yerevan and Kristine Vardanyan, an ARF member and parliamentarian representing the opposition Armenia Alliance. Vardanyan contacted the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan and the Human Rights Defender’s Office. Vardanyan told the Weekly that while the U.S. Embassy assured her that it would get in touch with the relevant agencies, “no significant assistance was provided within the 24-hour timeframe.” 

The Human Rights Defender’s Office eventually informed Vardanyan that Margossian’s name was included in a list of “undesirable persons for Armenia,” according to Vardanyan.

After more than four hours, Margossian was taken upstairs to the departure gates. “I hadn’t put two and two together. I thought they were saying I’d be more comfortable upstairs. The chairs are more comfortable, and I would have something to eat,” she said, until she recalled the officer’s warning that upstairs was a “bad place.” 

Margossian spent the night at the departure gates, catching some three hours of sleep on a waiting room chair. In the morning, she was informed by the Human Rights Defender’s office that she would need to submit a formal letter to the Armenian authorities to determine why she had been denied entry to the country. 

She was boarded on a flight to the UAE, connecting to Lebanon, where she would reunite with her mother. When she spoke with the Weekly from the Dubai International Airport, she was “desperately hoping” her luggage was on a plane headed her way. 

“It’s not the same, but to think about how Azerbaijan has been blockading Artsakh for eight months now, not letting any Armenians out or any supplies come in. The Armenian government in a parallel fashion is preventing me from reaching my own country, but opening it up freely to Turkey and Azerbaijan as if they’re our friends, while they’re the biggest enemies and want nothing more than to see us completely destroyed. It’s frustrating. More than that–it’s unacceptable,” Margossian said. 

Margossian suggested she was deported from Armenia because of her involvement in protests in Washington D.C. against the policies of the current Armenian government. In November 2021, she delivered a speech criticizing PM Pashinyan’s signature of the trilateral ceasefire agreement ending the 2020 Artsakh War exactly one year earlier and the concession of land to Azerbaijan, during a rally outside the Armenian embassy in Washington organized by the AYF. 

This is not the first time in the past year that an ARF member and activist from the diaspora has been denied entry to Armenia, following their involvement in anti-government protests.

In July 2022, Mourad Papazian, a leading member of the French Armenian community, was detained at Zvartnots and deported. Papazian is a member of the ARF Bureau and the co-president of the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France, an umbrella structure of French Armenian groups. The Armenian Prime Minister’s office said that Papazian had been expelled from Armenia because he had organized an attack on PM Nikol Pashinyan’s motorcade during his official visit to France in June 2022. “Various objects and items were thrown in the direction of the motorcade,” according to the PM’s office. 

In August 2022, Massis Abrahamian, leader of the ARF in the Netherlands, and his daughter Suneh were detained and deported at the Yerevan airport. This past January, Njteh Karakavorian, head of the AYF in France, was refused entry to Armenia, en route to a pan-Armenian ARF Youth Conference in the Syunik province. 

The ARF has denounced these cases as violations of freedom of _expression_ and political affiliation. Vardanyan connected these incidents to the arrests of hundreds of protesters during anti-government rallies in Yerevan last year and a string of arrests of opposition politicians. 

“These incidents illustrate a worrying trend where individuals who participate in peaceful community events, engage in political activities and advocate for certain causes are being denied entry to the country or facing arrests. Such cases undoubtedly raise alarm about the state of democratic values and human rights in the country,” Vardanyan said in written comments to the Weekly. 

Meanwhile, Margossian says the priorities of the Armenian government need to shift.

“They need to protect our borders, protect Artsakh, focus energy on lifting the blockade and the return of prisoners of war. I am not their concern. I am a nobody in the grand scheme of Armenian issues right now,” Margossian said.