YEREVAN. – National Assembly (NA) of Armenia President Galust Sahakyan Thursday received a delegation led by Els Van Hoof, MP of the Chamber of Representatives of the Kingdom of Belgium, Head of the Belgium-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Welcoming the guests, the NA Speaker highlighted the advancement of interaction and dialogue between legislative bodies of the two countries, which, according to him, promotes the development of state relations, the NA informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Sahakyan expressed gratitude to the Belgian authorities for adopting, by the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in July 2015, the resolution on recognition of Armenian Genocide.

Head of the parliament of Armenia also highlighted the Belgian MPs’ forthcoming visit of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh).

“These visits neutralize the information isolation of Artsakh and make Artsakh people’s voice heard in Europe, [and] which strive for the recognition of freedom, justice and right to self-determination,” said Galust Sahakyan.

Speaking about Karabakh conflict, the parliamentary head touched upon the four-day war in April, and noted that Azerbaijan flagrantly violated the ceasefire agreement and inflicting many casualties. In this context, the NA speaker stressed that the peaceful settlement of this conflict is a most important priority of Armenia’s foreign policy. According to the Head of the Parliament, Armenia sees the settlement of the conflict exclusively through peaceful means, and under the auspices of mediatory mission by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.  

Attaching importance to cooperation between the two country’s parliamentarians within international organizations, Sahakyan noted that during the PACE Winter Session Armenia received great support from the Belgian delegation to PACE at the voting against the one-sided resolutions on Karabakh, and which were submitted by Azerbaijani lobbyists hat were distorting the reality.

Van Hoof, for her part, expressed gratitude for the warm reception, and highlighted the intensification of the Belgium-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group activities, and the exchange of mutual track-record between the parliamentarians. Focusing on the adoption of the resolution on recognizing and condemning Armenian Genocide, she noted that all forms of genocides shall be condemned to rule out their recurrence.

Reflecting on the Karabakh conflict, Els Van Hoof quoted Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission: “At the beginning of April, the violence surged to a level that was unprecedented since the ceasefire agreement in 1994.”     

She noted that they believe in the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ activities, and added that they see the settlement of this conflict through peaceful negotiations within the OSCE Minsk Group. Els Van Hoof stated that a political dialogue should take place for the conflict settlement, and expressed willingness to contribute, within their competence, to conflict settlement.