Armenia imposes no requirements on ethnic Armenians seeking citizenship.

Axar.az reports, citing Armenpress, that Armenian Acting Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Armen Ghazaryan said this.

“In fact, the Republic of Armenia imposes no requirements on ethnic Armenians seeking citizenship, and in my professional opinion, this is a problem that needs to be addressed,” Ghazaryan said.

According to him, the majority of applicants for Armenian citizenship are ethnic Armenians living in Russia. Their number exceeded 32,000 in 2025, marking a historic high.

Ghazaryan said the sharp increase was linked in part to the military operations in Ukraine and travel restrictions imposed on Russian citizens, which led many ethnic Armenians in Russia to seek Armenian citizenship.

He said that, in such cases, Armenian citizenship is essentially being used to obtain a travel document. Ghazaryan added that Armenia’s current legislation imposes no substantive requirements on ethnic Armenians seeking citizenship, although applicants may face administrative difficulties related to proving their ethnicity or verifying documents.

He said the government plans to introduce legislative amendments addressing the issue.