ArmInfo.Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov met on May 14 with a delegation headed by Deputy Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, Bjorn Soder.
According to the press service of the Parliament, Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly stressed the importance of expanding all-round mutually beneficial cooperation, intensifying contacts with Sweden. He appealed to the activities of parliamentary friendship groups and the effective interaction of delegations at inter-parliamentary platforms. Sharmazanov, highly appreciating the condemnation of the Armenian Genocide by the Swedish parliament in the matter of preventing such crimes, stressed the importance of universal recognition and condemnation of genocides. He invited his colleagues to discuss the possibility of organizing an exhibition in Sweden under the motto "Parliamentarians against genocide" to mark the 70th anniversary of the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly expressed concern over the fact that Turkey denied the Genocide for more than a century and stated that the authorities of that country are pursuing a destructive policy also in the issue of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "The Artsakh issue is not a territorial dispute, but a struggle for self-determination and freedom," the vice speaker of the parliament said. During the meeting, the parties also addressed other issues of bilateral interest.