Malkhasyan

MEMORANDUM **

Petitioner Konstantin Malkhasyan, an ethnic Armenian born in Georgia, petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision denying his application for asylum. Petitioner Emilya Malkhasyan, Konstantin’s wife, is claiming asylum as a derivative beneficiary.

The BIA upheld the Immigration Judge’s (IJ) decision that Petitioners failed to establish past persecution in either Georgia or Armenia or demonstrate a well-founded fear of future persecution on a protected ground. The BIA, instead, concluded that the serious problems faced by Petitioners were the result of conditions of general violence and civil unrest and determined that Petitioners were only subject to random acts of violence. 1 Petitioners established past persecution and accordingly, a remand is necessary for a determination regarding changed circumstances.

The IJ accepted Petitioner Konstantin Malkhasyan’s testimony which established several incidents of ethnically or politically motivated beatings. In 1994, in Georgia, the police demanded that he leave and requested that he sign papers agreeing to leave the country “because Georgia is supposed to be for Georgians.” Petitioner’s…