ARMENIAN DELEGATION ALSO TO PARTICIPATE IN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
DEDICATED TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH TO START IN TBILISI ON MARCH 23

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian delegation left for
Tbilisi on March 22 to participate in the international conference
dedicated to reproductive health to be organized in the capital of
Georgia. As Armen Ashotian, a NA Deputy, Republican, doctor by
profession, informed the Noyan Tapan correspondent, the conference is
organized with the assistance of the UN Development Programme,
European Parliament and a number of other international structures and
is held under the patronage of the First Lady of Georgia.
Parliamentarians of the South Caucasus states, specialists of
corresponding departments of the executive power, representatives of
the civil society will participate in the conference.

In A. Ashotian’s words, this is a long-term and continual program,
within the framework of which there were numerous gatherings in the
past as well. "It is very important for us, taking into consideration,
how embracing theme it is: it involves problems of demography, health
care, AIDS, narcotism and numerous other issues which in this or that
way influence on our people’s problem of reproduction as an ethnos,"
the deputy said. In his words, he will participate in the conference
by the invitation of the UNDP Office, and Sukias Avetisian, the Deputy
Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Social, Health Care and
Nature Protection Issues, a Republican, will participate in the
conference from the committee. A. Ashotian will make a report
dedicated to national efforts in the direction of the theme being
discussed and it is expected that the discussions will be effective
and useful.

In his words, the report dedicated to demographic problems recently
made public by the UN in which "the demographic prospect of Armenia is
not very bright not only compared with the countries of the region but
also by itself, also proves the staring importance of the problem. In
A. Ashotian’s words, in the case of not taking corresponding steps,
according to previsions, the number of the population of Armenia will
decrease to 2.5 mln in 2050, from the present official number of 3.2
mln people, and loss of the population of 700 thousand people is
rather big for a country like Armenia.

Besides the working days of the conference, March 23-24 discussions,
the First Lady’s reception as well as meetings at the Parliament of
Georgia and a number of other official events are also envisaged for
the participants. The deputy did not exclude that regional problems,
including Armenian-Georgian ones, are also touched upon during the
events. "I think that the Azerbaijani delegation will not have an
aversion to stress about its 1 mln refugees, taken from nowhere and
other baseless statements about which they, I think, speak even at the
exhibition of postage-stamps," A. Ashotian said.