|
|
 |
Hello... Can I Speak to Alexandre Varbedian? |
This is what the telephone caller to the "Hetq"
office asked. Our first reaction was that the call was a
prank since "Hetq" has published several articles about
Alexandre Varbedian and the fact that for the past five
years he has been denied an entry visa for Armenia. He
has never been told the exact reason why. Mr. Varbedian,
a French citizen, has a son and grandchild in Yerevan
whom he cannot see.
It was later revealed that the caller was one
Minasyan, an employee of the Consular Department of the
Armenian Foreign Ministry. In May of this year "Hetq"
had sent a letter to Foreign Minister Oskanian
requesting the reasons why Alexandre Varbedian was being
denied entry into Armenia. For three months we were
bounced from one office to another. Only recently were
we able to find out to whom the letter had been
entrusted. It appears that the result of all our
telephone calls was that Foreign Ministry employee
Minasyan decided to give us a phone call and ask to
speak to Alexandre Varbedian. A week before receiving
this call we again attempted to ascertain the
whereabouts of our letter and why no one deemed it
necessary to respond to it. An employee of the Foreign
Ministry's General Division again told us that our
letter had been forwarded to the Consular Department and
that it was no longer their responsibility. It took us a
full five minutes and much effort to get the complete
name of the employee at the Foreign Ministry's General
Division with whom we were speaking. When asked to
identify himself, the person replied that it wasn't
important. When we said that we were ready to take the
matter to court and that we needed to get some answers
to our numerous inquiries, he seemed to take a bit more
notice. After some more coaxing from us he finally
relented and said his name was Vahagn Papoyan.
There are people working at the Foreign Ministry
who are adept at the art of deception. They gave us the
run-around with answers such as, "We'll call you back in
fifteen minutes" or "That person is away on vacation".
That vacation seemed to have lasted for a whole three
months. Other responses to our phone calls included
phrases such as, "I won't answer. I don't know anything
so call the General Division". And when we did so we
were told to "Call such and such a number". Are these
just lies conveyed in "diplomatic guise" to fool the
unsuspecting common citizen or a well-honed method the
staff uses to do absolutely nothing in the way of real
work? Should we go to the courts based solely on the
fact that the Foreign Ministry staff seems to be
incompetent? When we picture the years the matter would
be dragged out in the court system we remove the thought
from our minds. The only recourse left would be to
employ our "personal contacts". If you want to get
anything done in Armenia you must use your "personal
contacts". On August 12th we finally received a reply to
our letter sent out at the end of May. This time we
didn't have to play the "personal contacts" card. That
can wait till next time.
In his letter dated September 11th, Tigran
Seyranyan, Director of the Foreign Ministry's Consular
Division, wrote that, " We wish to inform you that in
accordance with internationally accepted norms, the
reasons for denying someone an entry visa are not
revealed. We also wish to inform you that the general
conditions under which entry visas for the Republic of
Armenia can be denied and the circumstances involved are
clearly spelt out in the Republic of Armenia's law
entitled "In Regards to Foreign Nationals".
In previous articles we've discussed this law
and those aspects of it, which pertain to the case of
Alexandre Varbedian.
In fact, the few lines that Seyranyan sent to us
in response contained nothing in the way of pertinent
information. Such a reply could have and should have
been sent out back in June in order to comply with the
five-day time limit as prescribed by the Republic of
Armenia law regarding the "Freedom of Information". We
would strongly suggest that employees of all government
institutions, especially the staff at the Foreign
Ministry, familiarize themselves with this law, in
addition to all other pertinent laws on the books
regarding the disclosure of information. |
|
|
|
