MEETINGS OF THE POLISH-ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY FRIENDSHIP GROUP IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
National Assembly of RA
parliament.am
May 13 2010
Armenia
On May 12 the Head of the Polish-Armenian Parliamentary Friendship
Group of the Republic of Poland led by the Senator Lukasz Abgarowicz
arrived in Armenia on three-day official visit.
On the same day the members of the Polish-Armenian Parliamentary
Friendship Group in the National Assembly laid flowers at the memorial
perpetuating the memory of October 27, 1999 victims of the crimes.
In the parliament the first meeting was with the members of the
Armenia-Poland Friendship Group, which attended the Ambassador
of Armenia to Poland and Ambassador of Poland to Armenia Zdzislaw
Raczynski.
Welcoming the Polish counterparts in the Armenian Parliament the Head
of the Armenia-Poland Parliamentary Group Hrayr Karapetyan once again
extended his condolences to the Polish people on the occasion of the
tragic air crash and expressed hope that the Polish people will find
strength to overcome all the problems.
Highlighting the relations of the existing different levels between
Armenia and Poland, the Head of the Armenia-Poland Parliamentary Group
Hrayr Karapetyan opined that the cooperation of the Parliamentary
Friendship Groups formed between the parliaments of the two countries
would be of essential importance with respect to the further
development and deepening of the relations.
Both the Armenian and Polish counterparts emphasized the cooperation
within the frameworks of the EU Eastern Partnership. In that context
the Head of the Polish-Armenian Parliamentary Friendship Group Lukasz
Abgarowicz noted that they were willing to support Armenia’s European
integration process, and in the nearest future they are envisaging
to to take steps for facilitating the procedure of providing entrance
visas.
In the course of the meeting the sides touched upon the problems of
the Armenian-Turkish relations’ normalization and Karabakh conflict.
Introducing his view on the Armenian-Turksih relations’ normalization
Lukasz Abgarowicz said in particular: "The day will come when Turkey
would accept what happened, the historical truth."
The Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations also
received the members of the Polish-Armenian Parliamentary Friendship
Group of the Parliament of the Republic of Poland.
At the guests’ request Armen Rustamyan touched upon the
Armenian-Turkish protocols, which were signed in Zurich. Presenting the
approaches of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun on the above-mentioned issues,
Mr. Rustamyan highlighted the normalization of the relations between
Armenia and Turkey without preconditions, once again stressing that the
protocols should exclusively refer to the establishment of diplomatic
relations between Armenia and Turkey and opening of the border and
should not give opportunities to bring forth the preconditions by
Turkey. Talking about the suspension of the ratification process of
the Armenian-Turkish protocols said that Turkey tried to implement
its preconditions by the ratification of the protocols.
Mr. Rustamyan emphasized the experience and support of Poland in
the issue of Armenia’s European integration and the cooperation in
Euronest. Mr. Rustamyan highly assessed the level of the political
dialogue between Armenia and Poland, as well as all existing
preconditions for deepening the further development of bilateral
relations both in bilateral and multilateral formats.
The Chairperson of the NA Standing Committee on European Integration
Naira Zohrabyan also received the members of the Polish-Armenian
Parliamentary Friendship Group.
The Committee Chairperson highlighted the mandate given to the European
Commission by the Ministers’ Council of the Foreign Affairs of the
EU member states over signing an agreement of association, beginning
negotiations with Armenia, which will replace the functioning bilateral
treaty on partnership and cooperation. According to the Chairperson,
this is a beginning of a qualitative new phase in the issue of
political and economic integration to EU. The next most important
problem of the meeting was the Eastern Partnership programme
(it is known that the Eastern Partnership is a Polish-Swedish
initiative). Mrs. Zohrabyan expressed concern that because of the
Eastern Partnership Parliamentary format, delay of the Euronest works,
noting that among the Eastern partners Armenia was the first to form
its delegation in Euronest and presented the proposals of the Armenian
side on the Statute of the Euronest. Mr. Lukasz Abgarowicz said that
Poland also was concerned in driving forward as much as possible the
parliamentary format of the Eastern Partnership, and saying that in
2011 during their presidency the Eastern Partnership would be one
of the most important priorities. The sides also touched upon the
problem of the involvement of Belarus in the Eastern Partnership
format. Accepting that there exist problems connected with democracy
and human rights in Belarus, Mrs. Zohrabyan noted that nevertheless,
the isolation of Belarus will not lead to the solution of the existing
problems in that country and expressed her view that the dialogue
with Belarus should be continued.
Other issues of bilateral interest were discussed, too.