As it is known, the Republican Party has nominated its candidate for the 4th President of Armenia, namely, former Prime Minister, ambassador, businessman Armen Sargsyan.
The party also introduced the criteria according to which it chose Armen Sargsyan. These were the knowledge of foreign languages, broad links in the Diaspora and Armenia, impartiality, reputation, the circumstance of not belonging to any political party, etc.
Apart from these criteria, there are standards established by the Constitution. For example, Clause 2 of Article 124 of the Constitution stipulates that the President shall have held the citizenship of only the Republic of Armenia for the preceding six years.
We revealed that Armen Sargsyan used to have dual citizenship. He was a citizen of both Armenia and Great Britain. Armen Sargsyan’s name is on the white pages of the UK. The information about him was retrieved from the 2003-2012 records of the State Register of Voters of Great Britain.
Thus, Armen Sargsyan was registered in the SWP1 postal area in London with his wife Nune Sargsyan and his sons Vardan and Hayk Sargsyans. It is one of the most luxurious areas in London, the Westminster (where the Parliament is located). The residence address of Nune Sargsyan and Hayk Sargsyan then changes, and the Virginia Water town of Surrey County is mentioned (the surnames of the latter are change, and Sakissian is mentioned instead of Sarkissian), and there is no information about Armen Sargsyan’s citizenship and residence address after the year 2012.
In order for Armen Sargsyan to have the right to run for RA presidency, he shall have held the citizenship of only the Republic of Armenia for the preceding six years. In other words, he should have refused from a British passport at least before March 2, 2012. But the white pages do not contain information on the final month of Armen Sargsyan’s registration in the aforementioned address.
Armen Sargsyan’s Spokesperson Hasmik Petrosyan confirmed to us that Armen Sargsyan was a citizen of Armenia and the UK, adding that he refused British citizenship in 2011.
Thus, it is not clear when Armen Sargsyan refused the British passport, and when he stopped being a British citizen, whether it was in 2011 as his spokesperson claims, or in 2012 if we judge from the data on the white pages. And most importantly, when exactly did it happen if it was the year 2012?
Thus, even if Armen Sargsyan stopped being a British citizen before March 2, 2012 (and now he does not have a problem with running for president), we should state that he would not have been able to be nominated as a candidate for the 4th President of Armenia if the term of having only Armenian citizenship had been set for more than 6 years in the new Constitution. It should be reminded that the mandatory threshold of having RA citizenship for running for president used to be 10 years in the previous Constitution.
Rafael Afrikyan
Photo from the whitepages.co.uk website
