Tuesday, November 1 2016 17:09

ArmInfo. On November 1, the  President of the RA National Assembly Galust Sahakyan received the  delegation led by the President of the Senate of the Kingdom of  Belgium Christine Defraigne, the press-service of the Armenian  Parliament informs.  

Referring to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Christine  Defraigne reminded that Belgium was one of the first countries among  the European countries that in 1998 adopted a Resolution condemning  and recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Speaking about the adoption of  the Armenian Genocide recognition by the House of Representatives of  Belgium in July 2015 she has said that it is only a step on the way  of recognition of Genocide and has added that it will be complete by  the adoption of the law condemning the denial of the Armenian  Genocide. She has expressed hope that due to continuous work the  abovementioned law will be called into life. In this context  Christine Defraigne said: "We should adopt the law condemning the  denial in order not to let the Armenian Genocide". 

Referring to the problem of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Mrs Defraigne  has highly assessed the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs' activities and  has noted that Belgium sees the solution through peaceful  negotiations and is ready to have its contribution to that issue.

Talking about the Nagorno Karabakh (NK) conflict settlement process,  the Head of the Armenian Parliament has reaffirmed that Armenia sees  the solution of the problem exclusively through peaceful means under  the auspice of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. He has noted that it  is the only format of the NK conflict settlement, which has  sufficient potential for finding ways of settlement. In this context  Galust Sahakyan noted: "The April aggression by Azerbaijan has caused  serious damage to the process of negotiations. It is necessary to  undertake means for restoring the mutual trust in the peaceful  settlement of the problem, which will prevent the new use of force  and will create favourable conditions for advancing peaceful  negotiations."

The Head of the Parliament has underlined with satisfaction the fact  that during one year four Belgian parliamentary delegations visited  Armenia, combining them with the visit to Nagorno Karabakh. Those  visits, by Galust Sahakyan's assessment, are important in terms of  the process of the Nagorno Karabakh problem solution, getting  comprehensively informed about the pre-history of the conflict, and  sharing that information and the received impressions with their  colleagues.

To note, on July 23, the Belgian Parliament's House of  Representatives passed the resolution on the Armenian Genocide almost  unanimously - with 124 pros, 8 abstentions and no cons. To recall, in  1998 the Belgian Senate adopted a resolution on recognition of the  Armenian Genocide, and urged the Government to take the same step.  Prime Minister of Belgium Charles Michel recognized the Armenian  Genocide on June 18 this year.