Azernews.Az

By Sara Israfilbayova

Azerbaijan will start issuing electronic identity cards of a new generation starting from September 1.

To obtain the document, citizens can apply to all territorial police authorities and ASAN service centers.

Identity cards of the new generation will surpass the current ones from the point of view of security. In these identification cards will be placed chip, which combines information on citizen registration at the place of residence, marital status, as well as biometric photos and other individual indicators of the holder of the identity card.

The fingerprints (one finger with each hand) of the identity card holder will be recorded on the chip of the identity card as well.

When issuing an identity card to persons under the age of 15, the fingerprints of a citizen will not be taken.

Noteworthy, a new generation biometric identity card No 1 was presented to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on August 31.

The head of state posed for an ID photo and then put his electronic signature. The electronic identity card No 1 was presented to the head of state.

The idea of ​​such a combined paper-electronic document appeared in the U.S. after the 2001 terrorist attacks: duplication of the passport holder’s photo and the information about him, such as the date of birth and the number of the passport itself, on an electronic medium significantly complicated the possibility of forgery, and in the future allowed to store such information as fingerprints or drawing of the iris.

The idea of ​​such a passport was quickly supported by Europe - moreover, Belgium, which issued its first biometric passport on November 15, 2004, overtook the U.S. for more than a year, became the first country in the world to introduce a new type of identification card.

Citizens of the U.S. and the EU began to receive biometric passports from the end of 2005.

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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is

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