ArmInfo. Since March 1 of this year, with the participation of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diaspora and other organizations, more than 63 thousand Armenian citizens were able to return to their homeland. Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan stated this on May 4 during a meeting of the parliamentary committee on foreign relations.
The Minister emphasized that from the very beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made statements urging Armenian citizens to return to their homeland. <Our citizens took advantage of this opportunity. Since mid-March, 23,000 people have returned to the country. Indeed, at that time many airlines had already stopped flying, and it became more difficult for us to deliver people. In the event that we are unable to organize an early return of the citizens of Armenia, we render them feasible assistance on the spot>, Mnatsakanyan emphasized, citing as an example the overload of the Armenian embassy in the Russian Federation.
The Foreign Minister stated that the process of returning citizens is carried out taking into account the possibilities of Armenia related to the state of emergency and quarantine. "We have had cases when our citizens from abroad, having arrived at their homeland, became a source of infection, therefore it is very difficult to manage such a stream of returnees," Mnatsakanyan said.
He stressed that from March to April, citizens from Italy, Georgia, Angola, Poland, India, Russia, Israel, the USA, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Iraq, Ukraine, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon returned to Armenia. Moreover, on May 6, it is planned to return citizens from Kazakhstan and Jordan.