Margaryan

MEMORANDUM ***

Karen Margaryan, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) summary affirmance without opinion of his appeal from an immigration judge’s (“U”) denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review for substantial evidence, Sangha v. INS, 103 F.3d 1482, 1487 *881 (9th Cir.1997), and we deny the petition for review.

Even assuming Margaryan’s testimony was credible, substantial evidence supports the IJ’s conclusion that Margaryan did not establish that he was arrested and detained on account of his political opinion, in that he failed to show that his whistleblowing activities targeted corruption at Armenian Airlines that was “inextricably intertwined with governmental operation.” Grava v. INS, 205 F.3d 1177, 1181 (9th Cir.2000). Moreover, substantial evidence supports the IJ’s conclusion that Margaryan failed to show that his testimony against a private citizen was an expression of his political opinion, or that the low-level military police who demanded that he recant his testimony…