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The Armenian Weekly; Volume 73, No. 32; August 11, 2007
Interviews:
Dual Citizenship: An Interview with Vahan Hovhannesian
By Khatchig Mouradian
On February 26, the Armenian National assembly passed a law allowing dual
citizenship. In this interview, conducted in Washington on April 23, Deputy
Speaker of the National Assembly Vahan Hovhannissian discusses the
importance of that law.
Khatchig Mouradian-My first question goes beyond the legalities of the dual
citizenship law. In a sense, the dual citizenship law could bring the two
divided wings of the Armenian nation together. What are your thoughts on
this matter?
Vahan Hovhannisian-First, I must say that the passage of the dual
citizenship law will be considered one of the greatest victories of the ARF
in this term of the National Assembly. As you know, the law wasn’t passed
easily. But at the end, it passed more or less the way we wanted it to. In
the beginning, constitutional obstacles to dual citizenship were removed,
and then the law itself was passed. Now the third act remains: the
implementation of the law on the ground and the coordination of details. How
do people apply? What documents will they need to present? How will the
applications be processed?
You are right to point out that the law has many different layers. On the
one hand, it has a huge moral significance. As we all know, the Armenian
diaspora was not the result of emigration, it was the result of the genocide
when people were forced to leave their homeland. Thus, if the homeland,
though not complete, has been able to achieve independence, then it is
forced to give all of its children the right to citizenship. In our opinion
this law should have been passed as early as 1991, as soon as Armenia became
independent. Due to various political reasons, that was not accomplished.
But at least now we have been able to bring this process to its end, and now
any Armenian who would like to receive Armenian citizenship can do so, thus
gaining the rights of any citizen, not limited to voting.
Here I must emphasize that I hope the number of applications will be
plentiful and the number of Armenian citizens will grow. In the
international theater, a country with a population of three million and
another country with a population of five million carry different weight.
The dual citizenship law must strengthen Armenian’s position.
Aside from that, the introduction of dual citizenship in Armenia will
encourage investments. It is one thing to make investments in Armenia out of
a feeling of moral obligation toward the homeland. It is an entirely
different thing to be a citizen and a full participant of the civic life of
the nation, whether in politics, in the social sphere, or in other spheres.
In one word, the law will create new waves of Armenians heading toward
Armenia. Thus, the law will have far-reaching positive results.
K.M.-Perhaps this was more widely felt in the past, but there are some in
Armenia who say that the diaspora did not go through the difficult times
that Armenians in Armenia had to endure in the last decade, and claim that
this should be taken into consideration when thinking about dual
citizenship. What do you think?
V.H.-Such thinking easily crumbles in the face of criticism, since a large
section of the Armenian population did not go through those difficult days
either, and did not participate in the war. The Armenian authorities back
then shielded their sons from military service, had electricity and heating,
and did not share the people’s suffering. Can we take away their citizenship
because of this? I think this line of thinking is madness, especially since
there is a price to pay for becoming a dual citizen of Armenia-that is, a
dual citizen cannot run for the presidency or for a seat in the National
Assembly. I think from the point of view of fairness, this law is perfect.
K.M.-Naturally the passing of this law was welcomed by the diaspora. The
question in the minds of diaporan Armenians is when and how will this law be
implemented? Can applications only be filed in Armenia or will embassies
also be accepting them?
V.H.-We didn’t get to discuss the concrete steps to implement the law
because the elections are upon us and naturally the Assembly is on a hiatus.
But I think this will be one of the first issues discussed after the
elections. A committee has already been established that is dealing with the
details, including how one applies, what documents are needed, how
applicants will have to prove their Armenian origin, etc. There are some
points that need to be fine-tuned, and some time will be needed, but I think
it is a matter of weeks and that it will be resolved quickly after the
elections.
In reality, there are no obstacles for applying now. Meaning, just like
before, any individual who wants Armenian citizenship must apply to the
President of the Republic. It is natural, of course, that under the
circumstances a new process for the applications must be created. It is also
not a secret that the security services will need to review applications, as
some will attempt to abuse the system.
K.M.-What are the expectations from those who will benefit from the dual
citizenship law? What are their duties and what will they gain?
V.H.-As far as the Armenian government is concerned, dual citizens are first
and foremost citizens of Armenia. Where their other citizenship was issued
is of no interest to us. As such, they have the same duties toward the
Republic as any Armenian citizen would. That includes serving in the
military and other duties. Of course, when an individual is a citizen of
Armenia and another country, we cannot allow him or her to become an
Assembly member or President. But that doesn’t mean dual citizens will never
be able to serve in those posts. After living in Armenia for 10 years, they
may give up their other citizenship and receive full rights. There is one
problem: How are people to pay taxes? There are international tax agreements
and Armenia has signed such agreements with many countries. These will
ensure that the individual doesn’t pay the same tax twice in two separate
countries. And of course, those who have served in another army for 12
months will not have to complete compulsory military service in Armenia.
Also, those who are past the age of 27 will not have to serve in the
military, Dual citizens are also completely under the jurisdiction of the
Armenian government. For example-and this is a rather bad example-if an
individual commits a crime, the Armenian authorities will consider him as an
Armenian citizen, and the individual won’t be able to claim, say, that he is
a citizen of the U.S., or Syria, or France, and that he would like to be
tried in those countries under their penal codes. As far as the authorities
are concerned, a dual citizen of Armenia is a citizen of Armenia, and so if
you were to commit a crime in Armenia, the Armenian authorities would
prosecute you based on the Armenian penal code. The Armenian government’s
approach to dual citizens is identical to the approach used by the United
States. The U.S., too, recognizes dual citizenships, but treats all of its
citizens, including its dual citizens, the same way. Armenia will do the
same.
K.M.-In your view, what will the future bring and are there concerns for
possible obstacles? Is it possible that the law will be transformed into an
internal political tool?
V.H.-I don’t think that’s a concern, because in essence no one was opposed
to the concept of dual citizenship. People’s hesitance had much more to do
with voting rights-that is, there was the impression among many that
diasporan Armenians, by becoming citizens of Armenia, were mostly going to
vote for the ARF. This view, by the way, is far from the truth. I don’t
think that kind of vote will be large enough to have any effect on today’s
political landscape. On the other hand, if we really want the diaspora to be
a political presence in our country, if we really want to create one nation
in one state, and if we truly want to attract Western Armenians-the
diaspora-into our political life, we must allow for their political
preferences. So yes, all of those political parties that have come alive in
Armenia over the last few years should start taking into consideration the
interests of the diasporans, so they can gain their votes. This is a very
normal process and there shouldn’t be any problems, especially since in the
future the flow towards Armenia should be large. But I don’t think there
will be enough applications in the next few months or enough citizenships
granted that there will be a political imbalance in Armenia. I don’t think
it will happen and I think the fears that it will are not grounded in
reality.
K.M.-You said that this law would allow the Diaspora to inch closer toward
Armenia. As for the opposite effect-how will it move Armenia closer to the
diaspora?
V.H.-Here the issue is dual. If citizens of Armenia today were to gain
citizenship in another country, they would not be immune from their
obligations, such as serving in the Armenian army. This is one serious
problem. The second problem is the issue of the Armenian population in
Russia, who have close ties to Armenia, yet value their ties with Russia. We
must work with the Russian authorities and come to some kind of agreement
regarding the status of the Armenian population there, since it is the
largest Armenian population outside of Armenia.
As for the rapprochement between Armenia and the diaspora, I think that’s
going to take some time because the division between Western and Eastern
Armenians, which was forcefully and artificially created by our enemies, was
performed a long time ago. The division has been made. In that rapprochement
between Eastern and Western Armenians, whole mentalities have to be
reconciled with each other. And the issue is not just economic, it’s not
about investing in Armenia or buying a house in Armenia. It is about
Armenian grammatical rules, the literary language of Western Armenians and
Eastern Armenians-which Armenian children in both Armenia and the Diaspora
should start studying in equal amounts. These are very serious and
far-reaching issues that need to be resolved. This rapprochement won’t be
easy. For example, Armenia can’t just move a magic wand and pass a law
forcing classical orthographic rules down peoples’ throats, because that
means whole libraries will have to be corrected and a whole generation that
doesn’t know the rules will become illiterate. Instead, this change requires
long-winded efforts as well as a government plan. We have had a few
Armenia-Diaspora summits to find solutions to these issues. Unfortunately,
the solutions have not yet been found. The Armenia-Diaspora rapprochement,
unfortunately, has not yet occurred.