RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION BECOMES INTERREGIONAL ORGANIZATION

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Jun 19 2006

MOSCOW, JUNE 19, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. A conference of the
Association of Friendship and Cooperation with Armenia was held
in Moscow. It made a decision to reorganize the Association from
a regional NGO into an interregional one, as well as to change its
name. According to the Yerkramas (Territory) newspaper of Armenians
of Russia, now this Association of people’s diplomacy will be named
Russian-Armenian Friendship and Cooperation Association.

Prominent Russian public figure, writer, political scientist Viktor
Krivopuskov was reelected its President for a five-year term.

The conference called on the RF leadership and the Russian people
on behalf of the organization to join the international community’s
condemnation of facts of vandalism in Azerbaijan manifested in December
2005 in the city of Old Jugha (Julfa) towards the Armenian medieval
cemetery and four thousand khachkars (cross-stones) – masterpieces
of small architecture and property of the world civilization being
under UNESCO’s protection.

The delegates of the conference made proposals to the Presidents of
Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia about manifesting a political will
and devotion to age-old traditions of these peoples to live in peace,
friendship and consent when solving the Nagorno Karabakh problem. Only
the way of peaceful and fair negotiations, in the opinion of the
Russian-Armenian Friendship and Cooperation Association, can bring
the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples mutual consent, neighborhood of
friendly hearths and happiness in their families.

In a special statement the organization condemned the cases
of murders of citizens, in particular, of Armenian nationality,
committed in Moscow and in other regions on the ethnic ground over
the past months. The conference expressed anxiety in connection with
the negligence of law enforcement and special services responsible
for prevention and disclosure of murders, well-timed isolation of
persons infected with the poison of xenophobia, racial discrimination
and nationalism introduced from without. The conference also made
an appeal to the Armenian Diaspora in Russia, to the people and
media with a request not to dramatize the situation, not to extend
estimations to criminal actions of some degenerates to the whole
public-political situation in Russia, to more actively use the holding
of Year of Armenia in Russia for strengthening and developing the
age-old friendly ties between the Russian and Armenian peoples.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress