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NEW LAW COULD QUADRUPLE NUMBER OF ARMENIANS
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
Feb 21 2007
YEREVAN - Armenia's parliament has passed the first reading of a bill
giving ethnic Armenians the right to hold dual citizenship, a law
which could almost quadruple the number of the country's nationals
around the world.
Wedged between Georgia, Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan, Armenia has a
population of just 3.2 million but a diaspora of 8 million spread
across the globe, mainly in the United States, Russia and France.
The new law, debated on Tuesday, would allow the emigres to gain
Armenian citizenship.
Most fled the region after World War One, following mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. Turkey denies there was systematic
genocide and says large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim
Turks died as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing.
'Adoption of this law is conditioned by a wish to restore human,
civil and historical justice,' Gegham Manukian, a member of the
parliament and one of the authors of the law, told Reuters.
Armenians supported the idea of dual citizenship in a November 2005
referendum on constitutional amendments. The new proposal needs to
pass three readings in parliament to become law.
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
Feb 21 2007
YEREVAN - Armenia's parliament has passed the first reading of a bill
giving ethnic Armenians the right to hold dual citizenship, a law
which could almost quadruple the number of the country's nationals
around the world.
Wedged between Georgia, Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan, Armenia has a
population of just 3.2 million but a diaspora of 8 million spread
across the globe, mainly in the United States, Russia and France.
The new law, debated on Tuesday, would allow the emigres to gain
Armenian citizenship.
Most fled the region after World War One, following mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. Turkey denies there was systematic
genocide and says large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim
Turks died as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing.
'Adoption of this law is conditioned by a wish to restore human,
civil and historical justice,' Gegham Manukian, a member of the
parliament and one of the authors of the law, told Reuters.
Armenians supported the idea of dual citizenship in a November 2005
referendum on constitutional amendments. The new proposal needs to
pass three readings in parliament to become law.