Republican Party of Armenia

On November 25-29 at the invitation of the French Senate the Delegation of the RA NA Armenia-France Friendship Group left for France, which also took part in the works of the roundtable on the theme “Nagorno Karabakh: Peace and Dialogue.” The members of the delegation summed the results of the visit at the press conference in the NA on December 5.

Ara Babloyan, Head of the RA NA Armenia-France Friendship Group said that the members of the group had different meetings in the Senate of France, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the visit issues concerning the further deepening of inter-parliamentary relations, as well as in the spheres of education, health care, culture, agriculture and in many other spheres were discussed. The sides made a decision to establish friendly relations and cooperation not only with the cities full of Armenians in France, but also with other cities.

During the roundtable the members of the Armenian-French Parliamentary Group proposed to take measures in establishing an atmosphere of tolerance. As the member of the Group Margarit Yesayan noted, the representatives of the France-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Group normally distort the history of the NK problem. Nevertheless, she deemed joyful the circumstance that the French senators included in the France-Armenia Group very distinctly perceive the Artsakh problem. In the deputy’s word, the former French Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Fassier has introduced those present the origin of the NK problem in objective and unbiased way. Presenting the works of the OSCE Minsk Group he has underlined that the NK problem can be solved through peaceful means.

Mher Shahgeldyan underscored in his word that during a number of meetings the Armenian-French Parliamentary Group had voiced about the bellicose policy being pursued by Azerbaijan. It was noted in particular that during Ilham Aliyev's presidency abrupt changes had been in the political approaches of Azerbaijan, the campaigning of hatred and military rhetoric had been increased inside Azerbaijan, which are alien to European positions.

The deputy Mnatsakan Mnatsakanyan presented the cooperation of Talin and the French city Bourg-lès-Valence, noting that they had been sister cities since 2003: Francophonie center functions in Talin today financed by the French side.

The members of the Armenian-French Parliamentary Group also visited Hauts-de-Seine Department, which had invested 4mln euros in Tavush Marz in the sphere of agriculture and irrigation systems.