French Embassy in Armenia is Unaware of the Law, Claims Woman working in the CoE

Armenia’s French embassy has violated Tatev Margaryan’s, an Armenian citizen who works in the Council of Europe, rights by not allowing her to fly to Strasbourg with her one-year old child, despite an official CoE-approved invitation with the child's name. Epress.am spoke to Tatev Margaryan about the issue. The embassy rejected her visa two days before her departure, leaving Margaryan faced with a dilemma; either leave her job in Strasbourg as an educational adviser in study session dedicated to hard of hearing young people, or stop breast feeding her one-year old daughter.

“Many organizations in western countries give great importance to a child’s and parent’s relationship, so much so, that they send the father on a maternity leave along with the mother. And in case of international programs, the children travel with their mothers. For example, in the Youth Center of Council of Europe in Budapest there are rooms convenienced for a child’s residence. Either the French embassy is not aware of this, or they have forgotten this. There is no other way to explain the child’s visa rejection. The embassy’s decision violates a number of human rights. It deprives working women from equal rights, it endangers a mother's and child’s health and psychological condition. Suspecting illegal processes, it degrades a person’s dignity,” Margaryan told Epress.am.

The Embassy’s released document concerning the reason of rejection of visa states that the child does not have enough of a reason to travel with the mother.

“Basically the fact that the child is one year old, is being breast fed and can not support herself in her everyday actions, is not a sufficient enough reason to travel with her mother,” said the mother.

The Embassy demanded numerous documents from Tatev Margaryan, including a document concerning the period of time for which the notary has the right to certify a permission from the father that allows the baby to travel with mother (currently Tatev Margaryan’s husband resides outside Armenia and submitted a notary approved document). In response, the notary asked for a written petition from the embassy, which, however, the embassy never sent. Instead, they (embassy) demanded the copy of the page in the husband’s passport which proves that the husband was in Armenia when the document was provided, and the notary didn’t violate the law by certifying the permission given by the father.

“This, basically, shows that the general consul working in this country is unaware of the country’s elementary laws, and does not trust the country’s representative,” noted Tatev Margaryan.

Epress.am tried to receive comments regarding the case from the French Embassy in Armenia, however, they stated that individual cases are kept confidential. “If the woman wants, she can appeal the visa rejection decision,” responded the Embassy.

Margaryan, however, did not think it was realistic to appeal the decision two days before her departure, especially since the decision was made on a Friday.

Photo from Tatev Margaryan’s Facebook page