PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF BILL "ON NKR CITIZENSHIP" HELD IN YEREVAN
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Nov 30 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 30, NOYAN TAPAN. On the initiative of Refugees and
International Law Network of Civil Society a bill "On NKR Citizenship"
was worked out, which will be submitted to NA for consideration
taking into account all observations. To recap, the Refugees and
International Law Network of Civil Society includes a number of NGOs
uniting hundreds of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan.
As Eleonora Asatrian, Chairwoman of Assistance to General Quality
Management organization making part of the Network, the bill, in
particular, envisages that Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan will
receive a compensation in return for their lost property. She said
that the Network has applied to Azerbaijani President with a proposal
to solve the problem of compensation, but no answer was received.
Currently the refugees try to solve their problems through NKR as
the only legal successor of Azerbaijani SSR having a resource in the
form of territories under control, which is rather natural from legal
point of view.
It was mentioned at the press conference that the bill also envisages
immediate right of receiving NKR citizenship automatically, by their
birth, as well as by Armenians who are former citizens of Azerbaijani
SSR, i.e. refugees.
It was mentioned that granting citizenship will give an opportunity
to Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan to immediately apply to NKR
leadership with a request to assist them in compensation of losses
sustained by them as a result of persecutions in Azerbaijan starting
1988.