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On June 29, the delegation led by the RA NA Vice President, the Head of Armenia-Czech Republic Friendship Group Eduard Sharmazanov, comprised of the RA NA deputies Gagik Melikyan and Vardan Bostanjyan met with the Head of the Catholic Church of the Czech Republic, Archbishop of Prague Cardinal Dominik Duka. The RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Czech Republic Tigran Seyranyan also attended the meeting.

The RA NA Vice President highly assessed Cardinal Dominik Duka’s personal contribution to the strengthening of two Christian peoples’ relations, as well as his efforts in making reality the desire of the Czech Armenians: due to those efforts on October 11, 2015 the Holy Spirit Catholic Church was handed over to the Armenian Apostolic Church Saint Grigor Lusavorich parish. Mr Sharmazanov expressed his gratitude to Dominik Duka for taking part in the exhibition dedicated to the Armenian Genocide in Prague.

In the course of the meeting sides highlighted the preservation of the Christian heritage. In this context Eduard Sharmazanov expressed his concern over the annihilation of the Armenian and Christian cultural monuments in Turkey, Azerbaijan and the Near East, as well as the attempt of turning Saint Sophia Cathedral of Istanbul into a mosque by Quran reading and prayer. By the RA NA Vice President’s, that fact is the logical continuity of the explosion of Deyr ez-Zor Saint Martyr Church, the destruction of Jugha centuries-old cross stones in Nakhijevan and the annihilation of the dozens of thousands Christian monuments in the territory of Turkey.

“The preservation of the Christian heritage in the world should be our sacred duty,” Mr Sharmazanov said.