Armenian MP barred from visiting military unit, calls ban 'shameful'

Opposition lawmaker Garnik Danielyan of the Hayastan bloc said on Friday that he was barred from entering a military unit where he had long paid tribute to fallen comrades.

Addressing the parliament on Friday, Danielyan said defense officials refused him entry this year, telling his friends they could not enter if he was with them. “Incompetence has reached the point where I was banned from laying flowers for my fallen friends. Is this because I’m a spy?” he said, calling the move “a shame” and urging the Defense Ministry to address the issue.

The MP noted that his friends from the United States and Russia, some of them war veterans, were barred from entering the military unit because of him.