ARMENIAN, SYRIAN PRESIDENTS AGREE TO CONTINUE POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS

Public Television of Armenia
June 17 2009

[Presenter] An official reception ceremony for the Syrian president
[Bashar al-Asad] took place outside the presidential palace today. The
presidents [of Armenia and Syria] Serzh Sargsyan and Bashar al-Asad
have held a one-to-one meeting, following which a meeting in an
expanded format was held.

A number of agreements was signed between the two countries on
cooperation in economic and humanitarian spheres, aimed at expanding
and developing relations. The two presidents came to agreement on
continuing political discussions between the two countries based on
the centuries-long friendship between the Armenian and Syrian peoples.

[Sargsyan] The ancestors of the present-day Armenian diaspora survived
the genocide [mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in
1915] exactly at the gate to Syria. In this regard, I would like to
recall a statement made by the late Syrian president, Hafez al-Asad,
in Yerevan 30 years ago – Syria is the second motherland of Armenians.