YEREVAN. – Within the framework of the 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in Geneva, Switzerland, Republic of Armenia National Assembly (RA NA) Chairman Ara Babloyan on Tuesday met with Demetris Syllouris, President of the House of Representatives of Cyprus.
Babloyan highly assessed the Armenian-Cypriot friendly relations, stressing that the two peoples are linked to one another by historical, cultural, spiritual, and system of values’ commonalities, and its vivid evidence is the Armenian Genocide’s recognition and condemnation by Cyprus in 1975, the NA news service informed. Also, the NA speaker expressed his gratitude for the unanimous adoption of the Cypriot House of Representatives’ resolution criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial. He expressed a conviction that Armenia will continue making efforts in recognition, condemnation, and prevention of genocides.
Noting that parliamentary relations between Armenia and Cyprus have reached a new qualitative level, Ara Babloyan highlighted the need to intensify the activities of the committees functioning in two legislative bodies and to increase the delegations’ mutual visits.
In terms of the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict, the RA NA chairman highly assessed Cypriot authorities’ firm support to the respective efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. The head of the RA parliament reaffirmed that Armenian authorities will always support Cyprus at international platforms, with respect to the Cyprus issue.
Also, Ara Babloyan reflected on the signing of Armenia-European Union (EU) Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, expressing the hope that Cyprus will quickly conclude the respective internal procedures for this agreement to enter into force.
In addition, the head of the RA parliament spoke about the effective cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries within international organizations, the two peoples’ centuries-old friendship, and the Cypriot Armenian community which makes this friendship stronger.
Demetris Syllouris, for his part, proposed Ara Babloyan to develop strategic cooperation based on the implementation of the specific programs in various domains. The parties agreed to discuss this matter during the Cypriot delegation’s future visit to Armenia, and to take more practical and concrete steps.
