More and more former Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) residents have started applying for the citizenship of Armenia, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Armenia Armen Ghazaryan said at a press conference Friday.

According to the respective data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia, as of Tuesday, 9,451 people had applied for Armenian citizenship, and 8,315 people had been granted it. But these are adults, as minors are granted Armenian citizenship automatically if at least one of their parents has been granted Armenian citizenship. Thus, more than 2,000 minors have been granted Armenian citizenship.

The deputy minister of internal affairs of Armenia noted that the number of applicants for Armenian citizenship is increasing. If at the beginning of the year about 20 people had applied daily, now there are more than 40. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia explains this by the fact that people have begun to better understand the need to obtain Armenian citizenship.

However, the deputy minister of internal affairs asked to find out from the National Security Service as to how many former Artsakh residents have left Armenia thus far.