RA NA SPEAKER RECEIVES OSCE PA PRESIDENT

National Assembly of RA
March 12 2010
Armenia

On March 11, RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan received the delegation
led by OSCE PA President Joao Soares. On the delegation were OSCE
PA President Emeritus Goran Lennmarker, OSCE PA Deputy Secretary
General Tina Schon, Adviser to OSCE PA President Heitor Romana and
other officials.

Welcoming the guests the RA NA Speaker highlighted their visit to the
South Caucasus countries and expressed conviction that they would have
opportunity to get introduced with the existing problems on the spot.

The NA Speaker highly assessed the role of OSCE PA in the process
of the inter-parliamentary dialogue, noting that Armenia greatly
emphasized the cooperation with OSCE PA and underlined the support
of the organization in the reforms being implemented in our country.

Joao Soares thanked for being hosted for the first time in the
parliament of Armenia, and as a Portuguese, said that they were
grateful to the Armenian big benefactor Galust Gyulbenkyan. The OSCE
PA President underlined the important participation of RA NA delegation
in the works of the Parliamentary Assembly.

Touching upon the settlement of the NK conflict and noting that
their wish is the problem to be solved, Joao Soares said that in
this issue sufficient courage is required, and now it’s the moment
to find solutions.

Highly assessing the fact of keeping in the center of attention of
OSCE PA President the process of the settlement of the NK conflict
and Goran Lennmarker’s role in this process, the NA Speaker Hovik
Abrahamyan first noted that the President of the country had initiated
a very active foreign policy of the settlement of the regional
problems with the neighbours, and in this issue he had the support
of the parliament. To NA President’s conviction, the NK issue will
be solved through peaceful negotiations within the OSCE Minsk Group
framework. "The most important thing for us is the NK status and
the security of the NK people," Hovik Abrahamyan said. The NA Speaker
noted that the basis of the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
is the recognition of the right of self-determination of the Nagorno
Karabakh people and the execution of that right, and any attempt of
the settlement through military way can have unprecedented consequences
not only for the conflicting parties, but also for the whole region.

The RA NA Speaker noted that Armenia was for the establishment
of relations with Turkey without preconditions, and this country
connected the ratification of the signed protocols with the NK issue,
whereas they had no relation with each other. "We’ll ratify the
protocols when they will be ratified by the Turkish Parliament,"
Hovik Abrahamyan said.

Touching upon the role of the parliament in the process of the
establishment of democracy in the country, the NA Speaker noted
that it had become a transparent rostrum of pluralism, where through
the visits to the parliament, different discussions, parliamentary
haearings different representatives of the society, members of the
political and public organizations can express their opinions.

In the course of the meeting other issues of bilateral interest were
discussed too.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress