News - Newspaper: Armenia MFA issues clarification which gives rise to some observations

Past daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes as follows, in part: The MFA [(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)] of Armenia issued a clarification, which, if we speak very diplomatically, gives rise to some observations. What is the problem? And the problem or complaint is that RA citizens receive Schengen visas from some embassies of European countries operating in the RA, but when they arrive in the given country, their entry is prohibited and they have to return to Armenia. Then, the RA MFA explains that the European countries are doing the right thing by prohibiting it because in the application-questionnaire and related documents the RA citizens submit only the purpose of traveling to the given country, but later, after receiving the visa, the purpose of the visit (the direction, program) or hotel reservation is changed or cancelled. It turns out that these RA citizens are "ignorant-naives" who think that if they receive an entry permit from one of the countries of the Schengen agreement, they can freely enter (depart, cross [into]) another country of the same agreement. Basically, that's the whole point of a "Schengen country visa." Moreover, it turns out that RA citizens are "less equal than others;" that is, they are obligated to present at length which [Schengen] country (countries) they intend to travel to, which hotel they are going to stay in, what they are going to eat for breakfast, whether they have money to pay for croissants, and so on. Of course, everyone can get familiarized with the details of the clarification of the MFA and get an idea. But what is much more interesting? Let's leave aside the fact that the MFA, instead of protecting the interests of the citizens of its country, gets angry [at them], and "gives [them] a lesson." There are no less profound questions here. The [PM Nikol] Pashinyan's authorities, whose constituent part is the MFA led by [FM] Ararat Mirzoyan, was "feeding" the public with theories in return for handing over Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] to the enemy [i.e. Azerbaijan], handing over the vital territories of Armenia to the enemy, and enmity with Russia, that "instead, we will be friends with Europe, we will go to Europe without a visa…” and similar things. (…) But the liberalization of visas, let's remind, is not a matter of a few days and a few months, but of years, even many years—if that will ever possible, of course.