YEREVAN. – It’s not by speaking at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that work should be done toward genocide recognition, or condemnation.

Chairman of the parliamentary opposition Bright Armenia Party (BAP), Edmon Marukyan, on Wednesday told about the aforesaid to reporters at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in capital city Yerevan. He noted this while reflecting on the remark that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not touch upon the Armenian Genocide topic in his address at the PACE.

“Not including that matter on the speech can’t be that much of a problem if there is a vision for how to shape relations with Turkey,” Marukyan added. “[But] in the given case, the authorities of the Republic of Armenia haven’t presented that vision, and no step is taken in that direction.”

The BAP leader noted that the Italian parliament’s recent statement condemning Armenian Genocide, and this statement’s adoption without any votes against is a huge positive move.

Marukyan said that the members of the Armenian delegation to PACE from time to time interact with the Turkish delegation.

“[But] we [Armenia] need to have a proactive approach, not reactive,” Edmon Marukyan stressed. “We [have] to make initiatives.”