A total of 26,233 individuals forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh have already obtained citizenship of the Republic of Armenia. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Davit Khachatryan during the debates in the National Assembly Tuesday regarding the signing of loan and grant agreements between Armenia and the ADB under the Transformative Housing Reforms for Improved Vitality and Empowerment (THRIVE) Program—and in response to a question from ruling majority faction MP Babken Tunyan.

Tunyan, in particular, noted that possession of Armenian citizenship is a mandatory condition for receiving state assistance under the government-implemented Affordable Housing program.

Also, he voiced reports claiming that Armenia is allegedly refusing citizenship to many people.

“As of today, I can note the figures: 26,233 of our displaced [Armenian] compatriots [from Nagorno-Karabakh] have obtained [Armenian] citizenship, of whom 16,919 are adults and 8,314 are minors. In process—that is, the number of citizens who have applied for [Armenian] citizenship and are still in the processing phase—is 6,696 people,” Khachatryan said.

And regarding reports of citizenship refusals, the official assured that he has no such information. “We have not received such alarming reports,” he said.