The 30th anniversary General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) was held in Halkidiki, Greece with the title of “30 years of IAO: Facing new challenges: Before new perspectives,” the Republic of Armenia National Assembly (RA NA) informs Armenian News-NEWS.am

At the end of the Assembly, with the proposal of the Secretary General of the IAO, the participants of the session adopted a statement in which Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was also condemned.

The head of the RA NA delegation to the IAO, the Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport Sisak Gabrielyan, the MPs Tsovinar Vardanyan, and Hrachya Hakobyan participated in the Assembly. The delegates of the Parliaments of 19 countries and the representatives of various international organizations attended the Assembly.

Sisak Gabrielyan took part in the closed meeting of the International Secretariat preceding the Assembly, where issues regarding the further activities of the organization were discussed.

During the Assembly, the Head of the RA NA delegation Sisak Gabrielyan, congratulating on the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the organization, highly valued the latter’s role in overcoming inter-religious contradictions and deepening inter-religious dialogue. He also emphasized the role of IAO in creating an exclusive platform for cooperation for parliamentarians of different countries, which aims to protect the religious rights and freedoms of Christians and promote peace policy. Sisak Gabrielyan also referred to the blockade of Artsakh, the ethnic cleansing carried out by Azerbaijan, the occupation of the sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia and the aggressive policy continued by Azerbaijan.

RA NA lawmaker Tsovinar Vardanyan touched upon the ongoing developments surrounding the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh in her speech, presented the resolution adopted by the PACE on June 23 in detail, and talked about the ongoing negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.