Friday, June 30 2017 20:38

ArmInfo.Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Head of the Armenia-Slovakia Friendship Group Eduard Sharmazanov, who is on a working visit to Bratislava,  expressed his conviction that the visit will give an additional  impetus to the Armenian-Slovak relations, especially the development  of inter-parliamentary cooperation, during the meeting with the  Speaker of the Slovak Parliament, Andrei Danko.

The press service of the parliament told ArmInfo that the importance  of intensifying mutual visits, as well as cooperation in the  parliamentary commission and friendship groups, was emphasized, an  exchange of views on cooperation issues at international platforms  was held.

Thanking Slovakia for its unwavering position on the Armenian  Genocide issue, Sharmazanov highly appreciated the adoption by the  Slovak parliament in 2004 of a resolution on the recognition and  condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, as well as the law on the  criminalization of the denial of crimes against humanity.

Speaking about the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, the Armenian Vice  Speaker confirmed Armenia's position on an exclusively peaceful  settlement of the issue. He noted that Armenia constantly calls for  peace and stability in the region, while Turkey and Azerbaijan are  the main threats to stability in the region.  In this context, he  touched on the sabotage constantly committed by Azerbaijan, and  stressed that there are no more enough declarative statements of the  international community on them, and effective steps should be taken  to prevent any attempts to destabilize the situation in the region.  <Artsakh is a state with democratic values. The people of Artsakh  heroically struggles to live in a free and independent country,  Azerbaijan is obliged to recognize the full right of the people of  Artsakh to realize the right to self- determination," said the  vice-speaker.

As a striking example of a peaceful solution to the issues  Sharmazanov cited the example of the civilized "divorce" of the Czech  Republic and Slovakia. At the same time, he regretfully stated that  Azerbaijan had chosen the path of war.

The Armenian parliamentarian also touched upon the process of  constitutional reforms in Armenia.