Armenia to revise rules for granting citizenship to ethnic Armenians
Deputy Head of Armenia's Interior Ministry Armen Ghazaryan believes that the process of obtaining the country's citizenship is too simplified for ethnic Armenians and needs to be revised.
He stated this at a press conference in Yerevan.
He noted that in 2025 more than 32,000 Armenians received citizenship, which is an all-time high. He believes that these are mainly Armenians who are citizens of the Russian Federation, and that the decision is driven by the Ukrainian conflict and problems with Russian citizens entering various countries. In this context, he stated that obtaining citizenship should have value rather than resemble a transaction.
"There are no requirements for ethnic Armenians to obtain our country's passport. This is a problem and it needs to be addressed in a targeted way," he said, not ruling out that corresponding legislative changes could be made.
Ghazaryan stated that in order to obtain citizenship, foreigners must go through the naturalization process, which involves three years of residence in the country and a test on knowledge of the language and laws. However, compatriots go through a simplified procedure, and in essence there are no requirements for them.
In this context, the official also noted that a person can renounce Armenian citizenship and 15 minutes later apply again to obtain it. This, in his view, is not right.
In turn, the acting head of the Migration and Citizenship Service of Armenia's Interior Ministry, Nelli Davtyan, reported that in the first half of this year 13,086 people applied for citizenship, and 16,770 received it. Moreover, 8,676 of them are forced displaced persons from Karabakh. Davtyan noted that in the same period last year 3,393 people from Karabakh received citizenship.
The official also said that 914 people submitted applications to renounce citizenship, while in previous years there were about 2,000 of them. This year, citizenship was terminated for 2,495 people, and last year for 2,100.
Source: Sputnik Armenia
