YEREVAN. – Armenian citizenship was granted to 21,000 Armenians last year, head of president's staff Vigen Sargsyan said while presenting the report on implementation of budget for 2013.

Sargsyan said it is the highest figure in the history of independent Armenia. Among the new citizens, there are Armenians from the Middle East and other regions.

“However, the country of origin is not important for us. The main thing is personal data of the applicants, each of which is studied in detail,” he said.

Vigen Sargsyan noted that the fact whether the citizens preserve their first passports is not important.

“According to the Armenian law, we consider people with dual citizenship as citizens of the Republic of Armenia. So, it does not matter whether he preserves other citizenship or not,” he concluded.