The delegation led by Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan is attending the four-day 143rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union being held under the auspices of the Parliament of Spain in Madrid, as reported the Public Relations and Communication Department of the National Assembly of Armenia.
In his speech at the session held on November 28, Simonyan expressed gratitude to his Spanish colleagues for organizing the assembly excellently and cordially hosting it after a two-year interval. The parliamentary speaker stated that Armenia and the Armenian people have been facing several domestic and foreign challenges over the past years. He emphasized that the Armenian government launched large-scale reforms after the velvet revolution in 2018 and considered the risk of destabilization and regional conflicts one of the serious challenges for democracy.
Touching upon the 44-day war that Azerbaijan unleashed in Nagorno-Karabakh, the parliamentary speaker attached importance to the need to find a long-term solution for settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the scope of the Co-Chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group. In the context of the post-war events, Simonyan reminded the attendees about the meeting of the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Azerbaijan held two days ago in Sochi where the leaders discussed the paths to stabilize the situation, that is, unblock all transport and communication means and solve the humanitarian issues, including the return of Armenian prisoners of war and other persons being held. He called attention to the need for sincere dialogue in which case all issues can be solved without the use of force.
In his speech, Simonyan also touched upon issues related to the youth, the freedom of press in Armenia and women’s rights.
In closing, the parliamentary speaker stressed that in a rapidly changing world, it is necessary to combine efforts to resist the new challenges for democracy.
