International filming group detained in Armenia

On March 10, at the Yerevan International Airport "Zvartnots", an independent international group of journalists and producers, who planned to film a documentary in Armenia about armed conflicts in the Caucasus, was detained without any explanations.

Upon arrival at the airport, the participants of the project were denied entry visas to Armenia. The rejection was not justified by responsible officials. The group included citizens of Lithuania, Estonia and Finland.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by the executive producer of the project Andrius Brocas, who is now in Lithuania, at five in the morning on March 10 the group arrived at the airport in Yerevan, where journalists were rejected their visas. "The members of the group were placed into the transit zone, where we stayed for more than 20 hours," said Brocas and added that the refusal of visas was not explained or justified.

He also noted that up to 5:00 a.m. on March 11 he was in touch with the group; however, as on the moment he had no information about the condition and whereabouts of his group. "It's very strange that on the eve of the visit of our Minister of Foreign Affairs to Armenia such incident happened," said Brocas.

According to Tina Madison, one of directors of the project, a possible barrier to enter Armenia could be the intention of journalists to interview the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who now heads the opposition. "But we did not conceal our intention and notified the Armenian party about it well in advance," she said.

Tigran Balayan, press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, has noted in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the MFA had no information about the detention of the international group of journalists. At the same time he noted that the MFA is not in charge of granting visas - this is the responsibility of the Division for Visas and Registration (the so-called "OVIR").

In his turn, Norair Muradkhanyan, head of the passport-and-visa department of the Police of Armenian, said that the entry of foreign citizens in Armenia was prevented by the Frontier Service, while the structure headed by him had nothing to do with the incident.

Gevork Abramyan, press secretary of the Limited Liability Company (LLC) "Armenia - International Airports" also advised to address on this matter to the officials of the frontier service; and the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent failed to reach the press secretary of the National Security Service of Armenia.