US Congressman Frank Pallone has issued a video-statement amid the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

“I’m happy that so many Armenian-Americans and their organizations worked hard in the last session of Congress to pass a resolution both in the House and the Senate to commemorate the Genocide.”

“It was a long time coming and many of us worked many years to achieve that. And so that was a major success. At the same time, I do want to mention that we've had a major event take place in the last few years in the Armenian Republic with the Velvet Revolution and the consequences of that were the new government.”

According to him, they have had a lot more closer ties with the new parliament.

“And as a result of that a lot has happened for example: in Armenia, the parliament has passed a lot of initiatives that create more transparency and open government improvements in the judicial system.”

In the meantime, Pallone noted: “The Turkish government has been taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to crack down even more so on social media and media outlets within Turkey, using it as an excuse to do that and really reducing the free press and the free media in Turkey. They’ve also taken the opportunity to free political, to free prisoners from their jails of which there are hundreds of thousands, but they haven't freed the political prisoners who opposed the Erdogan regime because of its dictatorial policies.”

“So what's happening in Armenia is very much the opposite of what's happening in Turkey. Armenia moves more towards democracy in a market economy, Turkey does the opposite.”

Pallone has also referred to the Artsakh presidential elections.

“The other thing I wanted to mention too is that Artsakh recently had a very successful presidential election, very transparent. Those who have monitored it said that it was very much like what you'd want to see in a democracy. And once again Artsakh has proven the fact that it is a true democracy and should be recognized by the US, and all countries of the world as a truly democratic republic and a sovereign nation.”