French journalist's hunger strike in Yerevan airport over politically driven entry ban Why are Armenia's friends silent?

This is a very revealing story. Leo Nikolyan, a French journalist of Armenian origin, has been on hunger strike for the 7th day in the neutral zone of "Zvartnots" airport. Earlier he stated that he was subjected to a political decision not to be allowed into Armenia. Nikolyan also stated that government representatives visited him, offered him a ticket and money to return to France, but he refused.

So, we already have an example of how the leaders of Armenia, which claims to be an “island of democracy” in the South Caucasus, deprive a French citizen of Armenian origin of the right to enter Yerevan. Moreover, as Nikolyan himself has already admitted, they simply tried to bribe him. Moreover, this was done not by the shoemaker Ashot, but by members of the Armenian government. But for some reason, seeing all this, the French senators who adopted anti-Azerbaijani resolutions remain silent.

The group of French supporters of Armenia, past and present, starting from the head of the French Foreign Ministry and mayors of a number of cities in this European country and ending with the French President Emmanuel Macron, is keeping silent. Pardon me, but he just had to react somehow to the situation with the protest of his citizen, who has been starving in the Yerevan airport for a week already, being ill with cancer! But Macron keeps silent.

The French Ambassador to Armenia, Olivier Decotigny, has chosen exactly the same model of behaviour. Yes, the same one who reacts happily to every sneeze in Armenian-French relations and who has made a considerable number of openly provocative, anti-Azerbaijani statements. He was obliged to contact Nikolian and to obtain permission to let him into Armenia. But Ambassador Decotigny did not do so.

He trivially reckons with Nikolyan, who previously accused Monsieur Olivier of monstrous corruption. Yes, a journalist now on hunger strike in the neutral zone of Zvartnots airport in January of this year addressed French President Emmanuel Macron on the X network (formerly Twitter) with a demand to explain corruption in the country’s foreign policy department. In particular, he pointed out that the French Ambassador to Armenia Olivier Decotigny embezzled 35 million euros through the illegal sale of visas.

After everything that has happened, do we have a reason to put forward the version that Ambassador Decotigny is personally interested in expelling Leon Nikolyan from Armenia? Absolutely. Just as we have a reason to point out the cowardly silence of the long-time mouthpiece of Armenian propaganda in the French information space. Yes, we are talking about Jean-Christophe Buisson, Deputy Editor of the oldest French publication "Le Figaro", who understands freedom of speech and thought in a very peculiar way. This gentleman has so often slandered Azerbaijan, so often tried to denigrate the historical victory of our country in the 44-day war, so often distorted the essence of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, that he should be called not a French but an Armenian journalist. In any case, he has now adopted the "ostrich posture", pretending that there is no blatant fact of the week-long hunger strike of a French citizen at Yerevan airport.

It is quite obvious that if information had emerged that a French citizen of Armenian origin had been starving at Baku airport for at least a day, Buisson would have thrown a tantrum. He would have screamed at the top of his voice, he would have demanded condemnation of our country. And not only him, but many French media. And many so-called international journalistic and human rights organisations.

The well-known Russian TV propagandist Vladimir Soloviev is also silent. I remembered him, who now regularly criticises the Armenian leadership, for a reason. "Sergey Gurdzhian, a citizen of the Russian Federation, born in Moscow, who served in the army and works for a large Russian company, was not allowed on a business invitation to open a branch of their company in Azerbaijan on the grounds that he has an Armenian surname," he yelled in November 2011 on Vesti FM radio.

The Azerbaijani side gave exhaustive explanations about the incident at that time. But now, as we can see, the bearer of an Armenian surname is banned from entering Armenia, and Solovyov keeps silent. Even for such a character as Vladimir Rudolfovich, this is somehow quite an obvious manifestation of the notorious "double morality". As, however, for too many of those who are used to looking for a straw in the eye of Azerbaijan without noticing the log in the eye of Armenia.

They have already failed the Leo Nikolyan exam, regardless of how this whole story ends.