YEREVAN. – Political activist Jirair Sefilian was denied Armenia’s citizenship, spokesperson for Sasna Tsrer party Hermine Mkrtchyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

In August Sefilian, a Lebanese-born Karabakh war veteran, addressed PM Nikol Pashinyan with a request to grant him the citizenship of Armenia in a short period of time, however, PM’s chief of staff Eduard Aghajanyan said the issue can be solved through court.

The party released a statement saying the Armenian government’s chief of staff in fact stated “there is no desire and will to grant citizenship to Jirair Sefilian. And, if Sefilian does not agree with the decision, he is free to file a lawsuit”.  

Sefilian has also applied for the citizenship of Armenia according to the normal procedure, but there have been no response as well. Most likely Sefilian will not be able to run in the early parliamentary elections, since he will not manage to get citizenship by that time.