MP Artsvik Minasyan, the secretary of the opposition Armenia faction in the parliament, says even a pro-government deputy indirectly blames the authorities for misconduct and “he is right”.
Speaking at a parliament sitting on Tuesday, Minasyan said “it would be nice if the executive power was in its place” and the Defense Ministry and the National Security Service (NSS) provided updates on the border situation, instead of “attacking” the ombudsman, who is the “only high-ranking official clearly standing up for the interests of Armenia and the Armenian people.”
Speaking about the government-drafted bill to limit the validity of Armenian passports in foreign countries to two years, Minasyan noted that it has caused a lot of dissatisfaction and complaints from citizens.
"It turns out that you limit the validity of passports in foreign countries to two years, but what about those, who, for example, have a passport valid for 4 years?” Minasyan said. “My passport has expired, and I can't get either an old-style passport or a biometric passport, because there are no biometric passports.”
He urged the authorities to issue biometric passports before initiating such restrictions.
Earlier, presenting the bill on making amendments and supplements to the law "On Citizenship of the Republic of Armenia", Deputy Chief of Police Ara Fidanyan said: "The draft law is aimed at resolving the practical problems arising in the course of application of the law, properly implementing the commitments under the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, as well as further simplifying the citizenship-related redtape.”
He noted that in addition to passports valid for two years, the draft law proposes to extend the deadline for citizenship applications for ethnic Armenians and other citizens of former Soviet republics permanently living in Armenia until 31 December 2023.