Njteh Karakavorian, the head of the youth wing of Dashnaktsutyun’s branch in France, was due to attend an upcoming conference of the pan-Armenian party’s young activists that will take place in Syunik province. He said he learned on Sunday that he will be denied entry to Armenia.
“They are saying that I’m an undesirable person for Armenia,” Karakavorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday. He said the authorities in Yerevan gave no concrete reason for the travel ban.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), which issues such bans, refused to clarify why it declared Karakavorian persona non grata. It said that only the French-Armenian activist can receive a formal explanation if he requests one in writing.
Karakavorian, who repeatedly visited Armenia last year, is the fourth Dashnaktsutyun activist known to have been barred from visiting his ancestral homeland. The three others received such bans last summer. They included Mourad Papazian, one of the leaders of France’s influential Armenian community.
The Armenian government said that Papazian was deported on his arrival Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport in July 2022 because of organizing an angry demonstration against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s June 2021 visit to France. It said the protesters threw “various objects” at Pashinian’s motorcade when it drove through Paris. Papazian denied any involvement in that protest.
Dashnaktsutyun’s organization in Armenia was at the forefront of regular rallies launched in Yerevan last spring by the country’s main opposition groups trying to topple Pashinian.
The party has strongly condemned the travel bans imposed on its European activists. It has accused Pashinian of seeking to silence his vocal critics in the worldwide Armenian Diaspora.