Ashotyan: From the point of view of promotion of foreign policy  interests, 2017 was successful for Armenia

ArmInfo.From the standpoint of promoting foreign policy interests, the year 2017 was successful for Armenia. On December 22, in Yerevan, summing up the results of  the year, stated the head of the parliamentary commission on foreign  affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia Armen Ashotyan.

In his opinion, in 2017 Armenia significantly strengthened its  positions in the sphere of security.  "Moreover, after the signing of  the comprehensive and expanded partnership agreement, Armenia-EU  relations have entered a new stage, I believe that relations with the  EU will be synchronized with the internal political agenda of Armenia  next year." I believe that 2018 is not unique or imposed from the EU.   will be the year of the parade of ratification of documents by the  European Union member states, "Ashotyan said. And in this context, he  added that the agreement contains transitional items, including the  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which states that the conflict should be  resolved exclusively within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group and  through peaceful negotiations, taking into account the right of  peoples to self-determination. According to him, these important  principles and the ratification by the parliaments of the European  countries of this document will support these principles.

In this context, the Armenian parliamentarian touched upon the  situation in the Karabakh conflict zone and stressed that the first  half of the year was not as favorable as the second one in terms of  provocations, private violations of the ceasefire regime, incidents,  and a periodic increase in the degree of tension.

At the same time, he stressed that he had little optimism about  maintaining stability in the conflict zone.  "After the Geneva  meeting, the situation in the conflict zone has stabilized more or  less, but this is not due to the fact that there are mechanisms of  trust in the conflict zone, which is due to the goodwill of the  military and political leadership of Azerbaijan, but there are no  guarantees that tomorrow this situation will not change.In this  regard, I believe it is important to introduce mechanisms of trust on  the contact line and increase the mandate of the office of the  Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office," Ashotyan  said.

At the same time, another achievement of 2017, the Armenian  parliamentarian called the strengthening of relations with China,  with neighboring Iran, the achievement of progress in relations with  Israel.

Speaking about the Armenian-Turkish relations, Ashotyan recalled that  in 2018 the Armenian-Turkish protocols signed in 2009 in Zurich will  be removed from the agenda. He added that it is no secret to anyone  whose fault these protocols remained on paper. "Today Ankara is  trying to save its own face, however these attempts are vain," he  said.

In general, he noted that the year 2017 was successful in terms of  parliamentary diplomacy, and Armenia in the international arena  defended both its own interests and promoted the interests of  Artsakh.