There will be legal consequences: information about the sale of children from children’s homes in Armenia is false

Arayik Sargsyan, who lives in the US and is indicated in various sources as the President of the Geopolitical Academy, addressing the information on closing down the Gavar children’s home, noted on his YouTube channel: “In the first ten days of December, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and his deputy met with the Duke Michael of Kent, a representative of a British organization engaged in trafficking in persons and human organs. They agreed to sell children from Armenia, especially children from children’s homes, and transfer them from Armenia to England under the guise of foster care.”

He also spoke on the same topic on December 9 last year.

Fact Investigation Platform tried to examine the authenticity of Sargsyan’s claims. First of all, it should be emphasized that no information about the sale of children or children’s organs from Armenia has been confirmed, and the claim of the Diaspora Armenian blogger is at least not evidence-based.

“The information about the sale of children is obviously nonsense, and it will have its legal consequences compliant with the law,”  Zara Manucharyan, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, informed in response to the inquiry by FIP.am.

As for the information about the closure of the Gavar Children’s Home SNCO, the Ministry representative noted that these discussions are related to the reorganization of the children’s home’s services. “It is not that the SNCO will be closed down, but a reorganization of the services provided thereby is foreseen,” added Zara Manucharyan, noting that the Ministry will introduce the details about the program later.

Information about the meeting between Prince Michael George Charles Franklin of Kent and Minister Narek Mkrtchyan

The visit of the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Narek Mkrtchyan to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was officially announced in December 2024.

During the meeting between Mkrtchyan and Prince Michael George Charles Franklin of Kent on December 9, the parties discussed areas of further cooperation, and the provisions of the three-year memorandum signed in 2023.

Prince Michael of Kent is a member of the British royal family, 52nd in line to the British throne. He is a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. Prince Michael has occasionally represented Queen Elizabeth II at Commonwealth meetings outside the United Kingdom. The Prince is a patron of a large number of non-profit charities, institutions, trade associations, societies and health organisations.

According to one of the scandals surrounding Prince Michael in open sources, in 2021 he offered to “sell access” to representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than £ 143,000. The report published by The Times was based on footage of a video call between Prince Michael and the Marquess of Reading, which was secretly filmed by journalists. A royal family representative later told the newspaper that the prince had not communicated with the Russian president since 2003.

The main function of Care for Children, a non-governmental organization supported by Prince Michael, is to help governments create a positive alternative to institutional care by placing children in loving families in the community. In Armenia, this institution is called “Foster Family.” As of October 2024, there were 105 foster families in Armenia, who took 176 children into foster care.

It is noted that a team of social workers and international development experts from the Prince Michael-supported NGO is working with national and local government agencies to train staff from government-run institutions and other relevant stakeholders to become family placement workers. They are entitled to recruit, assess and train eligible families, as well as place, support and monitor children as they move from institutions to foster families.

The organization designs special educational materials and programs customized to the unique political and cultural characteristics of each country.

Thus, Arayik Sargsyan’s claim about the sale of children or children’s organs from hcildren’s homes in Armenia is untrue, it is false.

Syuzanna Hambardzumyan