Authorities report growth in citizenship applications by Nagorno-Karabakh forcibly displaced persons

9,451 forcibly displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh have applied for Armenian citizenship since fleeing to Armenia in 2023, authorities said Friday.

8,315 of them have already been granted citizenship.

The data was as of May 20.

Minors are automatically granted citizenship if one of their parents obtains citizenship: Over 2,000 minors have received citizenship under this procedure, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Armen Ghazaryan said at a press conference.

“We’ve been noticing activeness in terms of applications [for citizenship]. In the beginning of the year the number of daily applications was around 20, whereas now we’ve been getting 40-50 applications per day,” Ghazaryan said.

He said one of the reasons behind the growing numbers is the state housing program designed for the NK forcibly displaced persons, where applicants are required to have Armenian citizenship.