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On May 4, the RA NA President Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Turkey Mustafa Şentop. After the official meeting the heads of the parliaments of the two countries had a tête-à-tête talk with about 20-minute duration.

The RA NA President noted that Armenia shows constructive involvement in the normalization process of the relations with Turkey. Alen Simonyan said that within the framework of the normalization process of the relations between Armenia and Turkey certain achievements were succeeded to record.

The Head of the Parliament of Turkey underscored that his country, in the framework of the presidency of PABSEC, tries to be neutral with all member states, adding that at this moment there are also conflicts among the member states.

The RA NA President, reflecting with pain to closing of the airspace for the Armenian airline companies by Turkey, expressed hope that this meeting in its turn will promote the solution of the problem. In response to that, Mustafa Şentop mentioned that the opening of the Nemesis Fountain-Memorial in Yerevan is a sensible and painful issue, by which is conditioned the abovementioned ban. The RA NA President opposed that many reasons can be pointed out, because of which numerous processes stopped, but his visit also in this respect contains an impetus for advancing.

Alen Simonyan noted that Armenia highlights the opening of the Armenian-Turkish land border for the citizens of the third countries visiting Armenia and Turkey and for the persons with diplomatic passports. He expressed regret that he could not cross the land border with diplomatic passport for taking part in this event.

“Despite the difference of the positions of Armenia and Turkey on a number of issues, we hope that this meeting will serve as a basis for establishing Armenian-Turkish parliamentary dialogue and forming necessary bases on providing its continuity,” the Head of Parliament stated.

According to Mustafa Şentop, Turkey seeks to normalize the relations with Armenia. To his conviction, the possible urgent solution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict benefits not only the parties to the conflict, but also to the whole region.

Alen Simonyan reaffirmed that the Armenian side is being led by the peace agenda and will not be deviated from that agenda. He documented that Armenia has no territorial claims against its neighbours, reaffirming that the goal of our country is the establishment of continuous and peace and stability in the region.

At the meeting reference was made to Turkey-Azerbaijan allied relations, within the framework of which the RA NA President stressed that the approaches of Baku are not constructive, and the latter acts from maximalist positions. Issues regarding the return of Armenian prisoners of war being held in Azerbaijan and the post-war situation were discussed.