Ayvazyan

MEMORANDUM ***

Saro Ayvazyan petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) summarily affirming an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum and withholding of removal. We grant the petition for review. Where the BIA summarily affirms an IJ’s decision without opinion, we review the IJ’s decision to deny asylum and his credibility determinations for substantial evidence. Chen v. Ashcroft, 362 F.3d 611, 616 (9th Cir.2004).

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). An IJ may not use a perceived discrepancy as a basis for an adverse credibility determination without affording the petitioner a…