Azatutyun.am. The National Security Service (NSS) put forward on Wednesday a bill that sets more stringent requirements for ethnic Armenian foreign nationals seeking to become citizens of Armenia.
The legal amendment drafted by it would make them eligible for fast-track dual citizenship only if they have stayed in the country for at least 60 days over the past two years.
The NSS said this would minimize applications from individuals who want Armenian passports in order to more easily migrate to other parts of the world and/or simply “have nothing to do with Armenianness.”
Armenia allowed dual citizenship as a result of constitutional changes enacted in late 2005. This was supposed to strengthen the country’s links with several million Diaspora Armenians scattered around the world. Tens of thousands of them have received Armenian passports since then, taking advantage of a separate law on citizenship that sets no residency requirements for them.
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In a written justification of the proposed amendment posted on a government website, the NSS said the law contradicts an article of the constitution which stipulates that Diaspora Armenians can become dual citizens “from the moment they settle in the Republic of Armenia.”
Citing its own “extensive research,” the NSS also argued that many of those applicants have never or rarely visited Armenia and not relocated to their ancestral homeland or bought real estate there after obtaining Armenian citizenship.
The security agency, which also deals with border control, singled out ethnic Armenians from Lebanon, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries. Some of them have used their Armenian passports “only for being able to travel to other states,” it said, presumably referring to their migration to the United States and European Union nations.
The NSS bill, which should be considered by the Armenian government after a two-week “public discussion,” follows a sharp rise in Armenian citizenship applications recorded by immigration authorities in Yerevan since the start of the war in Ukraine.
According to the Armenian police, 9,917 foreigners applied for Armenian citizenship in the first half of this year, up from 3,448 such requests received in the year-earlier period. The bulk of those applications were filed by Diaspora Armenians.
Police officials have not named the countries whose nationals applied for Armenian citizenship after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. Some Armenian media outlets reported recently that many members of Russia’s large Armenian community are now seeking Armenian passports because of the Western sanctions imposed on Moscow.
Armenia has attracted thousands of Russian migrants in the last few months. The vast majority of them have no Armenian roots.