Tosoonyan

MEMORANDUM **

Garen Tosoonyan, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order affirming the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal and relief under the Convention Against Torture (the “Convention”). We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we deny the petition for review.

Where, as here, the BIA conducted a de novo review of the record and made an independent determination of whether relief is appropriate, we review the decision of the BIA, not of the IJ. Molina-Morales v. INS, 237 F.3d 1048, 1050 (9th Cir.2001). We conclude that, even assuming that Tosoonyan’s testimony was credible, substantial evidence supports the BIA’s conclusion that Tosoonyan failed to establish persecution on account of a statutorily protected ground. See INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 483 , 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992); Sangha v. INS, 103 F.3d 1482, 1490-91 (9th Cir.1997).

Because Tosoonyan failed to establish eligibility for asylum, he necessarily failed to meet the more stringent standard for withholding of removal. See Pedro-Mateo v. INS, 224 F.3d 1147, 1150 (9th…