President Serzh Sargsyan receives French parliamentarians’ delegation

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan received the delegation of the Socialist faction of the French Parliament headed by Bruno Le Roux.

The president welcomed the guests who have arrived in Armenia within the framework of the events being held on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the death of the eminent political and public figure, Armenophil Jean Jaures and the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Serzh Sargsyan attached great value to such reciprocal visits and contacts which, according to him, provide a good opportunity to directly familiarize with developments taking place in the given country and with existing problems and challenges, to discuss issues of reciprocal concern and, of course, to give a new impulse to developing the interstate relations. The Armenian President stated with satisfaction that since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries the age-old close connections between the Armenian and French peoples have elevated to a qualitatively new level and have transformed into privileged relations. According to Serzh Sargsyan, this is testified by the upward development of the Armenian-French ties in all spheres, including the regular political dialogues, the active inter-parliamentary ties, the close partnership ties between more than 30 regions and cities of Armenia and France, the effective cooperation in the economic, cultural, educational and other spheres and the broad legal and contractual field.

The interlocutors agreed that the French President’s state visit to Armenia in May gave a new momentum to the Armenian-French friendly relations. President Serzh Sargsyan welcomed the fact that the French President consistently pays close attention to the activities aimed at developing the bilateral relations and to the issues which are of paramount importance to Armenia. Serzh Sargsyan noted that just two days ago, within the framework of the NATO Summit in the United Kingdom during their bilateral meeting Francois Hollande enquired about the implementation process of the arrangements made a high-level meeting.

Bruno Le Roux underscored that the visit of the delegation headed by him within the framework of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the death of the great Armenophil Jean Jaures provides a good opportunity to further enhance the friendship with Armenia and the Armenian people the apologist of which was Jean Jaures. As the representative of the majority in the French Parliament he attached great importance to the inter-parliamentary cooperation in reinforcing the bilateral interstate ties as well.

Praising the legal recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the French Parliament in 2001, the president noted that Armenia keeps a close eye on the process aimed at passing a bill on criminalization of the Armenian Genocide denial which, according to him, will not only honor the memory of the Genocide’s victims, but will also be an effective step toward protection of human rights and prevention of such massive crimes against humanity. Bruno Le Roux assured that they will spare no effort to continue working in that direction consistently and follow it through to its logical end, because, according to him, what France does is directed to the whole of mankind.

At the meeting the parties also placed great importance on French legislators’ visits to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the creation of the “France-Nagorno-Karabakh” friendship cycle.