ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS DUAL CITIZENSHIP BILL

Agence France Presse — English
February 20, 2007 Tuesday 10:56 PM GMT

Armenia’s parliament Tuesday adopted a bill allowing dual citizenship,
paving the way for naturalisation of Armenia’s massive foreign diaspora
as well as easing matters for Armenian immigrant workers in Russia.

Foreigners who are at least 18 years old, can speak Armenian and
know the constitution, as well as those with an Armenian spouse or
of Armenian origin, could benefit from the new law, Justice Minister
David Harutiunyan told parliament.

Armenia took the first step toward adopting this law in 2005, when a
referendum struck from the country’s constitution an article forbidding
dual citizenship.

The Armenian diaspora numbers up to nine million people by some
estimates and consists mainly of those who fled the Ottoman Empire’s
massacres of Armenians in 1915-1917, and their descendants.

These massacres were recognized as "genocide" by numerous historians
as well as the European Parliament and France, with Ankara hotly
protesting the appellation.