Grant Jirayr Sefilyan Armenian Citizenship

You cannot ask people to support this man,  when all you say is that he has been a war hero.  You know perfectly well that there is more to say.  

Yes, Dr. Babajanian, Monte was an excepional war hero and I respect that,  but that doesen't mean we should forget the crazy terrorist acts that happened in different places and innocent people died for nothing.

Please tell more about Sefilyan and let people decide.  It's simple,  isn't it?

This particular video was not randomly selected and posted along the call of the committee in support of Sefilyan's right to citizenship.

Sefilyan states, "Ով որ համարձակուի հող զիջելու, նրա գլուխը ջարդելու ենք, տրաքացնելու ենք:"

English translation: "Whoever dares to cede land, we'll smash, crack open his/her head."

These are hardly the words of a sober-minded, circumspect person addressing the public, irrespective of what the volatile sentiments are regarding yet unconfirmed reports of abandoning liberated lands.

Any person in a civilized society uttering such threats either is certified and sent to an institution for an examination and treatment, or taken under custody once sanity is established.  If the person holds a responsible public office, then trying for treason is not unreasonable.

Having said so, the matter of citizenship should be uncoupled from a person's conduct. Otherwise, people suffering from mental illnesses that are characterized with grandiose ideas, paranoid delusions, threatening behavior, etc would be stripped from citizenship, or not granted at all. This is counter to basic rights of people anywhere.

Sefilyan's case, granted, is complex. The long and the short of it is that he was "metamorphosed" from being a hero into a villain, and eventually "earned" the status of persona non grata.

His saga and the attitude of consecutive administrations in Armenia raise multiple issues only one of which is related to citizenship.

1. Why the authorities in Armenia and Artsakh, past and present, did not grant a minimum of honorary citizenship not only to Sefilyan but to all those fighters from the Diaspora who put their lives at risk regardless of whether those heroes asked for Armenian/Artsakhian citizenship or not?

2. Subsequent to the war of liberation, it is rumored that Sefilyan was engaged in shady dealings and wheeling. Were those alleged acts qualitatively at par with his heroism in the not so distant past? Why consideration is not provided to this aspect of his life?

3. Sefilyan has children born in Armenia. In most civilized countries, that alone would have constituted a compelling reason to grant citizenship. Are the Armenian authorities so inhumane to separate children from their father? Letting Sefilyan "reside" in Armenia with no clearly defined legal status is simply a band-aid solution. For whatever reason, there remains the potential of being expelled in future.

4. In the extreme case that Sefilyan, in the view of the authorities, has committed treasonous acts, then why he was not tried as such, and frivolous arguments were thrown around, such as possessing a firearm or a combat knife? Who amongst veterans in any country does not cherish to keep memorabilia?

The primary concern here is the principle of granting citizenship and not necessarily Sefilyan as such. In another place, I referred to the well known fact that countries do grant citizenship to mercenaries, let alone to heroes and to one of their kins.

Sefilyan's case is full of stories of betrayals, vendettas, political and PR concerns. It should have not been dragged on this long, and should have been handled very diplomatically.