Armenia granted citizenship to 25,670 individuals in 2025 by presidential decrees, including 19,367 compatriots forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh, Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan said at a parliamentary session on April 16.
According to her, the figure marks an increase compared to 2024, driven by a higher number of applications from Armenians living abroad as well as displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh, with the process carried out at an accelerated pace, reports 1lurer.am .
“We have an increase in the number of citizenship grants. This allows us to state that Armenia is becoming an attractive country both for ethnic Armenians who do not currently hold Armenian citizenship and for our compatriots displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as for citizens of other foreign states,” she said.
The minister also addressed claims that the state deliberately withholds citizenship from displaced persons. She noted that, in addition to the 19,367 individuals who received citizenship in 2025, a total of 36,676 displaced persons have effectively acquired Armenian citizenship—some through passport issuance procedures and others by presidential decrees.
“Among displaced minors, there were about 28,000 in total, of whom 12,000 have already received Armenian citizenship through passportization,” she added.
On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack on Nagorno-Karabakh, subjecting the region to intense shelling. A day later, local authorities agreed to a ceasefire under terms that included disarmament and dissolution. The assault left 223 people dead, including 20 civilians, six of them minors. Starting September 24, more than 100,000 Armenians were forcibly displaced to Armenia.
