PRESS CONFERENCE OF PRESIDENT SERZH SARGSYAN AND THE PRESIDENT OF SYRIA BASHAR AL-ASAD

President.am
June 19 2009
Armenia

Statements by the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and the President
of the Syrian Arab Republic Bashar Al-Asad for the press

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan

"Ladies and Gentlemen,

My wife and I are greatly honored to welcome the President of the
Syrian Arab Republic Bashar Al-Asad and Mrs. Asad in Armenia.

Our nations have been walking down the intricate and difficult road of
history side by side, constantly supporting each other and creating
common cultural heritage. The people of Syria lent a hand to the
hundreds of thousands of the Genocide survivors in the direst time
in the history of our nation. Forefathers of many of the Armenians
spread today all over the world had found their refuge behind the
Syrian gates. With this regard, I would like to recall the words by
the blessed memory President of Syria Hafez Al-Asad pronounced here in
Armenia thirty years ago, "Syria is the Armenians’ second motherland."

After Armenia regained independence, the Armenian-Syrian relations have
acquired a new quality and new content. Development of our relations
with the countries of the Middle East and with Syria in particular
has been among the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy. Armenia
and Syria have been cooperating extensively in the political area and
particularly in the international structures. However, it is necessary
to undertake decisive steps to raise the level of our economic
and trade relations. In this area, despite existing difficulties,
we are ready to exert necessary efforts to solve pivotal issues
that would promote cooperation. The Armenian-Syrian Business Forum,
which is opening in Yerevan tomorrow, will help to move this issue
forward. Agreements have also been reached related to the cooperation
in the area of transportation, especially land transportation. In
addition, a number of documents fostering the bilateral cooperation
have been singed today. Among them I would like to underline the
Agreement on Encouragement and Protection of Investments, which is
a major document for the promotion of bilateral cooperation in the
economic and trade area. Equally significant are the documents on
cooperation in the humanitarian area.

Speaking about our today’s meeting, I would like to note that it was
conducted in the atmosphere of openness and mutual understanding. We
have discussed with the President of Syria issues pertaining to
bilateral relations, as well as regional and international issues of
mutual interest. I would also like to mention with satisfaction that we
share total understanding regarding all the discussed issues. We have
also reached agreement to continue high level contacts and discussions.

I am happy to once again welcome President Al-Asad’s visit to Armenia,
viewing it as a historic visit of the President of a friendly nation.

Welcome, Mr. President."

President of the Syrian Arab Republic Bashar Al-Asad

"I am happy to visit this beautiful country and meet with President
Serzh Sargsyan.

This is the first visit of the Syrian President to your country
after Armenia’s independence. Certainly, relations between our two
countries are not confined to formalities. These relations should be
observed from a number of viewpoints: historical, existing mutual
sympathy, peoples’ viewpoint, and cultural perspective. During the
last two centuries both nations were walking down a difficult road and
those difficulties helped them to stick together to overcome those
difficulties. The interaction of the two nations was facilitated
by those Syrians, by those Armenians, who were living in Syria,
who were highly respected in that country and were true to their
obligations. Those Armenians came to Syria, entered that society,
adopted its ways, preserving at the same time their own national
traditions and their culture. It would be fair to say that a unique
kind of individuals was born, those who while living in a different
civilization, can create their own, new civilization. To the already
existing diverse Syrian culture they added their own.

I can say that these relations have strong foundations. And as a
result of today’s discussions and after future meetings we should
be able to move forward more decisively and faster. Our meeting with
President Sargsyan encompassed many topics. We have spoken about many
issues related to the Middle East, Caucasus, and Central Asia.

In Syria we greatly appreciated all the steps directed at the
normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations. I told President
Sargsyan about our readiness to assist in that process also since
close relations exist between Syria and Armenia and also between
Syria and Turkey.

President Sargsyan told me about Armenia’s position on the NK issue. Of
course, it is a very complicated issue and we would not like to see
it becoming even more complicated, because our experience in the
Middle East shows that, unfortunately, whenever the issue becomes
more complicated so does its resolution. I asked for President
Sargsyan’s opinion regarding that issue because next month I will be
visiting Azerbaijan and would like to know some concrete details of
this problem.

I presented to President Sargsyan our vision regarding the Middle
East peace process. I told Mr. President that today there is no
partner in Israel who can sit at the table of negotiations. And
we don’t see such a partner showing up in the foreseeable future;
however it doesn’t mean that we must stop the peace process. When
there is such a partner, the peace process will move forward.

When we talk about peace we cannot disregard Palestinians and
especially sufferings of the Palestinian people in Gaza, the difficult
situation which exists there, which provides no opportunities for
living, which results in children’s death. All these leave a negative
mark on the entire process.

Together with President Sargsyan we spoke in detail about our bilateral
relations, and I will not dwell on that issue again. Of course,
tonight we’ll have another opportunity to continue our discussions.

I express my deep gratitude to President Sargsyan for the invitation
to visit Armenia, and I am looking forward to his visit to Syria.

I wish the President of Armenia, the Government of Armenia and the
friendly people of Armenia good health and great success."