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On November 25 within the framework of the official visit to Syria the Chief Mufti of the Syrian Arab Republic Badr ad-Din Hassun received the delegation led by RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan.

Greeting the Armenian friends the Chief Mufti of the Syrian Arab Republic Badr ad-Din Hassun highly assessed the NA Speaker’s visit to Syria and noted that the Armenians were sisters and brothers for the people of Syria. In his words the Armenians are creative people, and the Armenian community with its community promotes the development of strengthening of Syria. He considered invaluable Armenia’s efforts of establishing stability in the region and expressed hope that the other countries of the region also take measures to prevent wars and establish stability. He wished Armenia and the Armenian people prosperity and strengthening.

Expressing his gratitude for warm reception the Speaker of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan considered invaluable the support of the Arab people at the tragic moment of the history of the Armenian people and noted that the Syrian Armenians was a firm bridge between the two countries and the two peoples. Hundreds of thousands of people, who found asylum in Syria built churches, cultural centers, schools and had their contribution in the development of the multi-national and multi-religious civilization of Syria. In Hovik Abrahamyan’s words, Syria is the best example of dialogue of cultures and religions, religious tolerance.

On the same day RA NA delegation left Aleppo for Deir ez-Zor. At airport the Governor of Deir ez-Zor Hussein Arnus, the members of the state power and other officials met the NA Speaker and the deputies. After short conversation, during which issues of bilateral interest were discussed, the delegation left for Surp Nahatakats (St. Martyrs) Armenian Church. In the memorial complex of the Armenian Genocide victims the Armenian parliamentarians laid a wreath and flowers at the memorial of the innocent victims paying tribute to their memory. The NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan and the members of the delegation visited the Genocide Museum, got familiarized with the documents assuring the Armenian Genocide, left notes in the Museum Book.

In the hall next to the Church a meeting with the representatives of the Armenian community was held. The NA Speaker noted that at the end of the official visit to friendly Syria the delegation of Armenia could not but visit Deir ez-Zor. - “If every year the Armenians all over the world on April 24 gather at the monuments, perpetuating the memory of the Armenian Genocide innocent victims and which became sacred places, then Deir es-Zor has become a sacred place of every day visit for all Armenians. Here, on the Syrian land hundreds of thousands of Armenians, who hardly survived the Turkish yataghan (sword) and were deprived of their homeland and property, were martyred. In this desert almost a century ago the Armenian mothers being homeless and defenseless, but not in despair, were writing the letters of the Armenian alphabet on the sand with their tears, to retain their children’s identity as Armenians and sowing in them the Armenian spirit,” Hovik Abrahamyan noted. “We are here to pay tribute to the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, which was planned and perpetrated at state level in Ottoman Turkey, and at the at same time to re-establish our resoluteness directed to the restoration of the historical justice,” the NA Speaker concluded.

In the evening the delegation led by RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan returned to Yerevan.