In five years 15,000 people refuse from Armenian citizenship

In five years the number of people, who renounced Armenian citizenship, has increased dramatically, the press service of the passport and visa department of the Armenian police said.

According to the press service, 968 applications were received in 2012, 1461 applications - in 2013, 2407 applications - in 2014, 2487 applications - in 2015, 3863 applications - in 2016, and as of December 1, 3823 applications were received in 2017.

In total, 15,000 citizens applied from 2012 to 2017 for the renunciation of Armenian citizenship, News.am reported.

A member of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, former head of the Armenian police Alik Sarkisian said that this is a serious indicator, and that the government should recognize this as the number one problem for the country.

He does not exclude that a significant part of the Armenian citizens, having refused from the citizenship, did this in order to avoid military service.