Chakryan

MEMORANDUM ****

Vardan Chakryan, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) summarily affirming the decision of an Immigration Judge (IJ) in which the IJ denied Chakryan’s applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we deny the petition for review.

The IJ rejected Chakryan’s applications for asylum and withholding of removal after concluding that Chakryan’s testimony was not credible. The IJ’s adverse credibility finding was based not only on Chakryan’s “demeanor, his rationality, [and] the *37 internal consistency and the inherent persuasiveness of his testimony,” but also on several discrepancies between Chakryan’s testimony and the other evidence in the record. We review adverse credibility determinations for substantial evidence, giving “ ‘special deference’ to a credibility determination that is based on demeanor.” Singh-Kaur v. INS, 188 F.3d 1147 , 1151 (9th Cir.1999). We will uphold an adverse credibility determination as long as the inconsistencies identified by the IJ go to “the heart of the…