Dual Citizenship
Civil Georgia is reporting that Saakashvili will grant dual-citizenship to Georgians living abroad.
I believe this is primarily aimed at getting those living abroad to come home, without risk of losing their foreign citizenship.
Personally, I am a triple-citizen, and I think this is a great idea.
I am not sure what Armenia’s position on this is, but the dual-citizenship law would certainly be a good idea.
Dual citizenship will have to be introduced as part of wide-ranging constitutional reforms that are required by the Council of Europe. The reforms failed to be passed by referendum last year (long story as to why) and will be once again be up for referendum next year. So, Armenia will remove the constitutional restriction on dual citizenship at some point in the near future. Basically, the issue of real note will perhaps be on what terms can citizenship be applied for and what obligations is a new citizen expected to fulfill — for example, military service. In the case of the Diaspora, it is unlikley that more than a few thousand will move to live in Armenia for an extended period in the present situation and I personally like the Georgian approach which aims to attract those Georgians that have already left to return or at least, take a more involved interest in the development of the nation. BTW: Is it just me, or is Georgia under Saakashvili shaping up to be everything Armenians hoped Armenia would be but isn’t? Cheers.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 6/2/2004 @ 3:28 am