GEORGIAN LEADERS NOT TO ATTEND ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, April 20. / ARKA /. President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili
will not come to Armenia to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian
Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, Russian Interfax news agency said.
Interfax quoted Tengiz Pkhaladze, an aide to Margvelashvili, as saying
that Georgia had informed Armenian authorities through diplomatic
channels that president Margvelashvili will not be able to come to
Armenia on April 23-24 because he will be welcoming Byelorussian
president Alexander Lukashenko who will be visiting Georgia on the
same days with an official visit.
The Georgian government did not confirm earlier reports that Georgian
prime minister Irakli Gharibashvili will be present in Armenia on
April 23-24.
Last week Georgian parliament declined a motion to consider the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide presented by the ethnic Armenian
MP Samvel Petrosyan.
Independent experts say Georgia is reluctant to recognize the massacres
of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide not to worsen relations
with neighboring Turkey and Azerbaijan, its key economic partners.-0-
From: A. Papazian