Artsakh citizens allowed alternative birthplace entries in passports

PanARMENIAN.Net - Artsakh residents can request to avoid the "Azerbaijan" designation in their passports by specifying an alternative birthplace from their birth certificate, such as a region, district, city, town, or village. This was announced by the Migration and Citizenship Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which simultaneously warned that this could cause problems at border checkpoints, according to CivilNet.

"According to the current legislation of Armenia, there is an alternative for the birthplace entry based on a government decision, which allows a citizen’s birthplace in the passport to be recorded as the country or, at the citizen’s request, the region, district, city, town, or village—provided the corresponding information exists in the birth certificate. Therefore, upon a citizen's request, other data present in the birth certificate can be recorded, but it may cause complications at border crossing points," the service stated.

As of April 16, following the forced displacement of 2023, 8,568 individuals from Nagorno-Karabakh have applied for Armenian citizenship.

Responding to concerns from Artsakh residents about why "Azerbaijan" appears as the birthplace in Armenian passports, the Migration and Citizenship Service emphasized that passport entries are governed by international ICAO and ISO 3166 standards, and deviations from these standards may cause issues at border control.

"The field for indicating the place of birth in machine-readable travel documents is regulated by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standard 9303, which stipulates that the birthplace field must comply with ISO 3166. This latter standard defines the acceptable geographical units by country that can be recorded in passports.

Thus, any entry made by the authorized body—the Migration and Citizenship Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs—that is not validated within the framework of international regulation could cause problems at border crossing points. The Migration and Citizenship Service has already received alerts from border control agencies in different countries regarding this issue. In the daily operations of the Service, these problems are resolved as much as possible through cooperative means. When issuing new documents, the Service strictly adheres to international standards to ensure lawful handling of the matter," the clarification explained.

On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale offensive against Artsakh, subjecting the region to massive shelling. One day later, on September 20, Artsakh authorities accepted a ceasefire proposal from the command of the Russian peacekeeping mission, agreeing to Baku’s conditions, including the disarmament of the Defense Army and the dissolution of the Republic of Artsakh. From September 24, forced displacement of Artsakh residents began, with over 100,000 people fleeing to Armenia. Reportedly, about 20 Armenians remained in Artsakh. On September 28, Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree on the dissolution of Artsakh, effective January 1, 2024.