Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

This is funny. Compare the FM and the NA's versions of the dual citizenship law.

http://www.parliament.am/legislation.php?sel=show&ID=1731

http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/perspectives/dualcitizenship-final-eng.pdf

Things that make my hair rise "simplified procedure" which is so simple that it is not explained or defined, the fact that the government may allow you to have dual citizenship but they won't recognize it, and there are different versions of it depending on whether you go the legislature or executive branch and the President ultimately controls whether you get it or not.

Frickin shabby if you ask me.

And, the funny thing about the application is that you can take a driving test in California in Armenian but you can be an Armenian and not get a citizenship application for your homeland in English or Spanish or French, etc.

You are saying there should be application formes in English, if you don't know how to read and write Armenian why do you even try to become a citisen.

[crusader1492]

Re: Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

Frickin shabby if you ask me.

No one asked you. No one ever asks you.

[Armanen]

Re: Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

I don't see how that has any bearing on this topic. Care to illuminate me? Is there somewhere in the new code that requires you to have visited Armenia before?

You obviously agree with my position, so I guess in your own guilt you feel you must go after me.

dumbass, it was just to see if you have been there, and if so whether you have had personal trouble with the authorities there, such as official red tape. But I sense that you have never been and I hope you do not as we do not need pseudo Armenians like yourself running loose in Armenia.

[crusader1492]

Re: Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

dumbass, it was just to see if you have been there, and if so whether you have had personal trouble with the authorities there, such as official red tape. But I sense that you have never been and I hope you do not as we do not need pseudo Armenians like yourself running loose in Armenia.

The hypocrite (freaky) asked me the same question a few months back, (Im sure with the assumption that I've never been to Armenia). Now he whines when he's asked the same question....typical.

[Mos]

Re: Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

Look, I think every Armenian has to go to Armenia. How can you support and advocate a country you have never been too? You have to see the Armenian people interact with them to really understand the kind of country you are from. You have to visit the beautiful churches, the beautiful mountains that our ancestors have lived for so many years. I have gone to Armenia every year of my life, mostly to visit my family, but the more I've went to more I've connected with it. And now I feel more at home at Armenia then the USA. I feel more connected with the Armenian people than with the Americans. I feel their pain, their humor, their mindset. That's why I want to live in Armenia for the rest of my life, be around my family and relatives, and be immersed in our unique culture and serve my one and only country. Because I know that if I stay in the US like it or not my Armenian identity will fade. Not mine though, maybe my children, but my grand-children will have forgotten their culture and will only briefly refer to it only during cultural diversity days. The last think we Armenians want is the assimilation of our identity which is taking place in the US as we speak. I see it all around me people with Armenian last names, not knowing their Armenian or maybe touching upon it in the slightest manner. Because in the end it is with similar culture, language, and the homeland that we connect with one another.

[Armanen]

Re: Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

Look, I think every Armenian has to go to Armenia. How can you support and advocate a country you have never been too? You have to see the Armenian people interact with them to really understand the kind of country you are from. You have to visit the beautiful churches, the beautiful mountains that our ancestors have lived for so many years. I have gone to Armenia every year of my life, mostly to visit my family, but the more I've went to more I've connected with it. And now I feel more at home at Armenia then the USA. I feel more connected with the Armenian people than with the Americans. I feel their pain, their humor, their mindset. That's why I want to live in Armenia for the rest of my life, be around my family and relatives, and be immersed in our unique culture and serve my one and only country. Because I know that if I stay in the US like it or not my Armenian identity will fade. Not mine though, maybe my children, but my grand-children will have forgotten their culture and will only briefly refer to it only during cultural diversity days. The last think we Armenians want is the assimilation of our identity which is taking place in the US as we speak. I see it all around me people with Armenian last names, not knowing their Armenian or maybe touching upon it in the slightest manner. Because in the end it is with similar culture, language, and the homeland that we connect with one another.

You have captured my feelings almost to the letter.

[freakyfreaky]

Re: Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

Yeah, ok, whatever. My family is written about in Armenian in a book published in Armenia. My maternal great grandfather is from Martuni.

But, if the majority of those of you here are representative of the mentality of those in Armenia, why would educated, professional, successful Armenians in the diaspora want to return???

And, if you can't understand why using English for an immigration application back to Armenia may benefit in garnering more interest in completing it, then you have serious problems - notice how the citizenship statute is published in English - who is that for?? RA Citizens??

There are plenty of Armenians who don't read, write or speak 'Eastern' Armenian that may desire to attempt to enjoy their right of return.

[Armanen]

Re: Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

If one can read western or eastern it is not much trouble for them to read the other. I don't think it would be a bad thing if the application were in other languages too, but many other european nations have their residency permit applications in their native language, one is austria.

But, if the majority of those of you here are representative of the mentality of those in Armenia, why would educated, professional, successful Armenians in the diaspora want to return???

That's quite a claim for you to be making, that you're educated and professional.

[crusader1492]

Re: Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

Police Release Armenian Dual Citizenship Data


By Ruzanna Stepanian

Nearly one thousand foreign nationals have applied for dual Armenian citizenship since it was introduced by the authorities in Yerevan late last year, a senior police official said on Wednesday.

Armenia’s constitution banned dual citizenship until it was amended in a disputed November 2005 referendum. Then President Robert Kocharian and some of his political allies, notably the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), were instrumental in the lifting of the ban. They cited the need to better utilize the economic and political potential of the worldwide Armenian Diaspora.

It took the Armenian authorities two years to enact corresponding changes in the country’s law on citizenship and approve a complex procedure for applying for and obtaining dual citizenship. The president of the republic has the exclusive authority to grant it. Dual citizenship applications have to be endorsed by the police and a special presidential commission headed by Justice Minister Gevorg Danielian before being considered by the head of state.

According to Alvina Zakarian, head of the Police Department on Passports and Visas, 188 foreigners, most of them ethnic Armenians, have been granted Armenian passports since the measure took effect last December. Zakarian said almost 800 other applications are currently being considered by relevant state bodies. She added that most of the applicants are citizens of Russia, Georgia, Iran, and other countries with sizable ethnic Armenian communities.

Zakarian confirmed that all prospective dual citizens must be permanent residents of Armenia and that those who have no ethnic Armenian roots must have lived there for at least three years. “For example, an Australian living in Australia is not eligible for our dual citizenship,” she told reporters.

The residency requirement set by the law was clearly intended to allay fears that dual citizenship would allow the Diaspora Armenians, who greatly outnumber Armenia’s population, to influence election results and other political processes in the country. During February 2007 debates on the government-drafted amendments to the law, senior lawmakers from the ruling Republican Party demanded that dual nationals be granted voting rights only if they live in Armenia during at least one of the five years preceding a particular election. They dropped the demand after it was rejected as unconstitutional by the government.

[freakyfreaky]

Re: Dual Citizenship - Now A Reality

So let's see the first three presidents since the 2nd independence of the 20th century were all diaspora Armenians. So they changed the law so that is no longer possible. And, the RA does not recognize your other citizenship.

Also the fact that the President is the ultimate decider re: an individual's citizenship is not a very good safeguard of an individual's constitutional right to due process. Thanks for the followup Crusader.