Hetq informs that “Since 2002, entry into Armenia has been prohibited for French-Armenian ontologist and genealogist Alexandre Arord[i] Varbedian.”

In August 2003, the Department for Pardons, Citizenship, Awards and Titles, within the President’s staff, refused Varbedian’s application for a ten-year paid residence permit in Armenia. Since then, Varbedian’s three electronic tourist visa applications have been refused and, on two occasions, invitation letters from his son, Artur Varbedian, have been rejected without a reason cited.

Varbedian, a natural born citizen of France raised in Armenia, has been reportedly refused extension for his Armenian visa due to allegedly belonging to a sect, writes Hetq.

Having read most of Varbedian’s writings and attended one lecture by him in Yerevan before 2003, I know he considers himself Aryan, hence his made up middle name – Arordi (Son of Ar/Sun). 

I guess the good news is that Varbedian is surprisingly not anti-Semite (as far as I can recall).  Just the opposite, he considers Jewish culture Armenian-Aryan and apparently has no hate for them.  But the off-shoot he has supported, such as the tiny Armenian-Aryan organization, is largely anti-Semitic to an extent that, as we revealed last year, one of their leaders particpitaed in Iranian president Ahmadenijad’s infamous Holocaust denial conference.  Varbedian’s tone is still moderate and not too rhetorical. 

But I question Varbedian’s scholarship, and especially his mystic writing style (such as “…” after almost every paragraph) can get annoying.  I also don’t support the school he has created in Armenia that basically is along the eurocentric hierarchial view that western (Aryan for Varbedian) means progress and that the source of every good is in the Aryan culture.

I don’t think it is right for Armenia to blacklist Varbedian because of his beliefs.  These blacklists actually give more credit to his work by creating the mystic environment of exile that the Aryan genealogist is facing.