Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 10
Trend:
The number of people, who refused from Armenian citizenship, has increased dramatically, the Armenian media reported citing the press service of the passport and visa department of the Armenian police.
According to the press service, 3,823 citizens applied for the renunciation of Armenian citizenship in 2017.
Thus, 968 applications were received in 2012, 1,461 applications - in 2013, 2,407 applications - in 2014, 2,487 applications - in 2015, 3,863 applications - in 2016, and as of December 1, 3,823 applications were received in 2017.
In total, 15,000 citizens applied from 2012 to 2017 for the renunciation of Armenian citizenship.
A member of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, former head of the Armenian police Alik Sarkisian said that this is a serious indicator, and that the government should recognize this as the number one problem for the country.
Sarkisian does not exclude that a significant part of the Armenian citizens, having refused from the citizenship, did this in order to avoid military service.