Արևելահայերեն
Արևմտահայերեն
РусскийRA Ministry of Diaspora has managed to gather data from several inheritors of Nansen Passport holders
The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute adjunct to the National Academy of Sciences has no original Nansen Passports at present. In an interview with WomenNet.am, Director of the Museum-Institute Hayk Demoyan said obtaining an original Nansen Passport is very costly.
“The museum has no original Nansen Passport, but it does have copies. It is costly, but if there are originals, the Museum is ready to buy them,” said Demoyan.
In 2011, the year marking the 150th anniversary of Norwegian polar explorer, scientist, diplomat and prominent humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen, the events dedicated to the anniversary included the creation of a database that would include data regarding those with Nansen Passports in the Republic of Armenia and in the Diaspora and their inheritors (passports or copies thereof, photos, documents, materials related to the passports, the owners, books, memoirs, etc.).
In an interview with WomenNet.am, Chief of Staff of the RA Ministry of Diaspora Firdus Zakaryan said that the government had given the assignment and that the Ministry of Diaspora had managed to gather information about some of the inheritors of people with Nansen Passports.
“They brought copies of their parents’ passports. None of the people with a Nansen Passport is living today,” said Zakaryan.
According to him, all the collected data are currently at the disposal of the Armenian government.
During the 1922 Geneva Conference, it was thanks to Nansen’s direct efforts that it was decided to grant refugees and stateless persons temporary identification certificates called “Nansen Passports” on which stamps with the picture of Nansen were posted instead of a coat-of-arms.
By the decision of the League of Nations of 12 July 1924, Nansen Passports were granted to nearly 320,000 Armenian Genocide survivors around the world. By obtaining those passports, the survivors were granted the right to move freely in the states participating in that Conference and there were no longer any restrictions for stateless persons that had existed until then.
H. Karapetyan
