and include ethnic Russians as well as Belorussians and Poles (UNHCR 1993). Although the size of this population has fallen, as of 2018 an estimated 11.6 percent of Latvia’s population falls under the UNHCR’s statelessness mandate (UNHCR 2019b, 66).38 In order to acquire Latvian citizenship, such persons must pass language and history exams. In 1999, Latvia’s government amended its citizenship law to allow children born in Latvia after August 1991 to be registered as citizens. This process has been further simplified in recent years. Any Latvian-born individual of Russian, Belorussian, or Polish ancestry who was born before 1991 is potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness. People from these groups born after 1991 are also at risk of statelessness if their parents have not registered them in Latvia, as stipulated by the 1999 citizenship law. Lithuania Lithuania enacted citizenship laws in 1989 prior to its formal independence and in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The 1989 law granted citizenship to descendants of legal residents of the first independent Lithuanian republic (1918-1940) living in Lithuania on December 11, 1991, and allowed others present in Lithuania to claim Lithuanian citizenship between 1989 and 1991. This latter group consisted of people of non-Lithuanian ethnicity, particularly ethnic Russians. The 1991 law affirmed the citizenship of all those who had obtained citizenship under the conditions of the 1989 law (UNHCR 2016a, 17). Additionally, individuals who moved to Lithuania following the collapse of the Soviet Union were eligible to claim citizenship until July 1993 (ibid.). Populations that are potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness include: Lithuanianborn individuals from minority ethnic groups who resided outside of Lithuania from 1989 to 1991 and could not claim citizenship; some prisoners who were ineligible to claim citizenship; and, some minors whose parents did not file for their citizenship and who are ineligible for subsequent descent-based naturalization (ibid., 20). South Caucasus: Ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many ethnic Armenian refugees fled to the Republic of Armenia from the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region within Azerbaijan. Many ethnic Armenians arrived with Soviet passports and were rendered stateless following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many have acquired Armenian citizenship over time, but approximately 1,400 remained stateless as of 2017 (DOS 2017l, 25). A significant number of ethnic Armenians also fled to Armenia from Abkhazia, a disputed territory within the Republic of Georgia. Individuals who fled to Armenia prior to 1993 were not recognized by Georgian citizenship law following the collapse of the Soviet Union (UNHCR Armenia 2013, 53). It is not clear to what degree they have obtained Armenian citizenship. Ethnic Azerbaijanis also fled Armenia and became refugees in Azerbaijan in the same time period, but most have naturalized and become citizens of Azerbaijan (UNHCR 2003, 22). Furthermore, as of 2017, thousands of potentially stateless ethnic Azerbaijanis from Georgia resided in Azerbaijan (Tabachnik 2019, 2). Some ethnic Azerbaijanis born in Georgia fled to Azerbaijan in 1991 and 1992 and were not able to prove residency in Azerbaijan in order to claim 38 The authors calculated this percentage using official UN population statistics for Latvia. 16