Over 25,000 people applied for Armenian citizenship in 2022 alone

ArmInfo.Over 25,000 people applied for citizenship of the Republic of Armenia in 2022 alone. Hovhannes Aleksanyan, the Head of Strategy Development at the Office  of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia, stated this  at a press conference.

He noted that this is the highest recorded figure since 1991. As a  comparison, Aleksanyan drew attention to the fact that in the period  from 2018 to 2021, about 40,000 Diaspora Armenians received RA  citizenship. 

According to him, if earlier, in applications for citizenship,  representatives of the Armenian communities of the Middle East, in  particular Syria, Lebanon, prevailed, then for the last 2 years, the  Armenians of the Russian Federation have occupied the leading place,.   Aleksayan explained that such high rates of repatriation are due to a  number of factors. At the same time, he urged not to politicize this  issue, referring to conversations that the wave of repatriation is  connected with the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, the Syrian  conflict. In this regard, the representative of the Diaspora  Commissioner noted that all countries with leading experience in this  area always try to use crisis situations to stimulate similar  processes.  

Aleksanyan also noted that over the past 3-4 years, residents of  about 40-45 countries have applied for Armenian citizenship, a  significant part of which still return to their historical homeland  for permanent residence.  "I am sure that repatriation has no  alternative," he stressed. In this vein, Aleksanyan noted that the  state still has a lot of work to do to stimulate the repatriation  process, in particular, in terms of improving the legislative field,  creating favorable conditions, increasing the number of state  programs implemented in this area, etc.