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RA National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan received the Secretary General of t he International Organisation of La Francophonie Abdu Diouf. Welcoming the Secretary General Hovik Abrahamyan noted that he visited Armenia during an important event: this year Armenia together with all other member states of International Organisation of La Francophonie marks the 40^th anniversary of the organization. “In October 2008, when Armenia received the status of the associated member of the International Organisation of La Francophonie , once again ensuring its adherence to the common values of Francophonie,” RA National Assembly Speaker said noting that the International Organisation of La Francophonie gives a new format for political, economic and cultural cooperation: “We observe it as a favourable atmosphere for other states of La Francophonie in the development of both bilateral and multilateral relations.”

Expressing his gratitude the Secretary General of International Organisation of La Francophonie for the reception gladly noted the role of Armenia in the International Organisation of La Francophonie and the role of the parliament of our country in the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie. In his words the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie is the most important circle of the International Organisation of La Francophonie: “The Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie is a permanently awake soldier.”

Highly assessing the role of the parliamentary diplomacy in the whole world RA National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan reminded that taking into account the role of the parliamentary diplomacy, the cooperation potential between the parliamentarians of the Francofonie member states in spreading the values of Francofonie, the Armenian Parliament applied to the International Organisation of La Francophonie, and in Paris in July 2009 at the plenary session of the International Organisation of La Francophonie RA National Assembly was granted a status of associated member. In the words of the head of the Armenian Parliament this status gave opportunity to RA National Assembly to be fully involved in the works of the International Organisation of La Francophonie. “And as one of the first steps taken we invited to hold the forum of the European region of 2010 in Yerevan. It will be on May 4-6,” RA NA Speaker said.

In his turn Abdu Diouf touched upon the parliamentary diplomacy and said that it could play a big role in the process of the peaceful settlement of the conflicts, support the solution of the existing problems between the peoples. In this context the Secretary General of the International Organisation of La Francophonie said: “The Armenian Genocide is always bright in our memory. It is an open wound, and we have our debt before that memory.”

RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan noted that condemning every crime we prevent the implementation of similar crimes in the world later.

Hovik Abrahamyan told Abdu Diouf about the wish of RA National Assembly to become a full member of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie. By the way, as a result of cooperation, which was approved between the International Organisation of La Francophonie and RA National Assembly, Armenian Parliament became a benefactor of Noria programme support for 2010-2013. As a result of the programme, the official website of RA National Assembly will be translated in French, the French information will be enriched and courses of the French language will be organized.

Touching upon the achievements, which were recorded in our country in the direction of the development beginning from the membership of Armenia, RA NA Speaker noted about the investment of the third language in RA general educational system. In Armenia every year in March Days of Francophonie are organized. This year more than 30 cultural, educational and artistic events are planned from March 15 until April 15. Cooperation was established between the Armenian two higher educational institutions, the French University in Armenia and Yerevan V. Brusov State Linguistic University and Francophonie University Agency.

During the meeting the sides touched upon the NK problem and Armenian-Turkish relations normalization process.