Refugees from Artsakh with blue passports are de jure already  citizens of RA -  Vardan Ayvazyan

ArmInfo.Refugees from Artsakh with blue passports are de jure already citizens of the Republic of  Armenia. This was stated in an interview with ArmInfo by Head of the Chair of Constitutional Law of the Faculty of Law of Yerevan State University  (YSU), Associate Professor Vardan Ayvazyan.

Let us recall that on October 26, the RA Cabinet of Ministers adopted  a resolution that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh were granted  temporary protection status, equivalent to refugee status. The RA  government also suggested the residents of Artsakh to submit an  application to obtain citizenship of the Republic of Armenia.  As  Armen Ghazaryan, head of the migration and citizenship service of the  Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia explained, the people of  Nagorno-Karabakh were issued blue passports as travel documents,  rather than citizenship certificates. Advisor to the Minister of  Justice of Armenia Artem Sujyan, in turn, stated that since 1991,  between the then Minister of Internal Affairs of Armenia and Artsakh,  an "interstate agreement" was signed, on the basis of which these  passports (with code <070>) were issued to residents of  Nagorno-Karabakh as < travel document>, i.e., a document with which  you can leave the country and travel.

"How can the provision of a passport be explained by some kind of  oral agreement?" a constitutional law expert wonders. "It is not  correct to consider the blue passport issued to the residents of  Artsakh as a travel document," he says. According to him, a blue  passport is issued to citizens of the Republic of Armenia, and a  document allowing free entry into the territory of the Republic of  Armenia and in the RA territory without an entry visa- a special  passport of the Republic of Armenia, is issued to foreigners of  Armenian origin, as well as other foreign persons carrying out  economic or cultural activities in the country. These persons with a  special residence status have equal rights and obligations with  citizens of the Republic of Armenia, with the exception of the right  to participate in elections and the right to own land. They are also  not obliged to serve in the RA armed forces.

"Nevertheless, in order to acquire full political rights - the right  to elect and be elected, to hold government positions, Artsakh  residents just need to be registered somewhere on the territory of  the Republic of Armenia in 29 thousand 800 sq. km., indicated by the  Prime Minister," the lawyer says.

In this vein, Ayvazyan considers the story related to applying for RA  citizenship and a "full-fledged passport" of a citizen of the RA  "unnecessary bureaucratic red tape, perhaps aimed at disappointing  these people." Moreover, the RA government automatically provided  them with "temporary protection status, equivalent to refugee  status," which can make the prospect of leaving Armenia and obtaining  asylum in another, more favorable and safe country, very tempting.  "And this is an additional source of threat to national security,"  the expert notes.

At the same time, for residents of Artsakh who fear that obtaining  Armenian citizenship means renouncing their property rights, Ayvazyan  reminds that the descendants of Armenians who suffered the Armenian  Genocide in Turkey can file a lawsuit against Turkey in international  courts in defense of their property rights. And having the  citizenship of another country does not prevent it in any way. Vardan  Ayvazyan only advises them to preserve the certificates of ownership  in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"At the same time, in the modern world, where international law has  already been buried, and international organizations - from the UN to  the EU and the Council of Europe - are in a state of deep impotence,  it is naive to expect the rights of Artsakh people to be protected.  Neither refugee status nor RA citizenship will help residents of  Artsakh protect their property rights if the system of values in the  world, as well as the balance of power between Armenia and  Azerbaijan, does not change in the future," the Head of the Chair of  Constitutional Law of the Faculty of Law of Yerevan State University  concluded.