Karapetyan

MEMORANDUM *

Eduard Karapetyan petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum and withholding of removal. We grant the petition for review. Because the parties are familiar with the factual and procedural history of this case, we will not recount it here.

I

Where the BIA incorporates the IJ’s decision without conducting its own review of the record, we review the IJ’s decision for substantial evidence. Lopez-Reyes v. INS, 79 F.3d 908, 911 (9th Cir.1996). When an IJ makes an adverse credibility determination, the IJ must provide “specific, cogent reasons that bear a legitimate nexus to the finding,” with inconsistencies or implausibilities that “go to the heart of the asylum claim.” Smolniakova v. Gonzales, 422 F.3d 1037, 1044 (9th Cir.2005) (internal quotations and alterations deleted). Minor inconsistencies cannot serve as the basis for denying an asylum petition, particularly where “inconsistencies cannot be viewed properly as attempts to enhance claims of persecution.” Hoque v. Ashcroft, 367 F.3d 1190,1195 (9th Cir.2004).

Applying these principles to the case at hand,…