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On March 17, the Viral Meeting of the International Secretariat, the Chairpersons of the Committees and the rapporteurs of the International Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), and the member of the Delegation of the RA National Assembly Hovhannes Hovhannisyan took part in the activities of the Assembly.

The item of the presentation of the new delegation members and the annual report of the activities of the IAO Secretary General was included in the agenda of the Meeting. The adoption of the Statement on the Protection of Christian monuments in Nagorno Karabakh (NK) was also on the agenda. The NA deputy Hovhannes Hovhannisyan also delivered a speech on that item. He touched upon the prior problems created for the Armenian people as a consequence of 44-day war: the Armenian prisoners’ immediate return and the preservation of the Armenian cultural and regional heritage appeared under the military control of Azerbaijan. Quoting the fact of the final destruction of the Armenian archaeological complex in Jugha in 2005-2006, the MP noted that the item of the protection of Christian monuments in the NK and in the whole world should be regularly discussed in the frameworks of the Assembly. According to Hovhannisyan, we should take steps with the UNESCO and other international authoritative structures on the elaboration of the effective strategy for the prevention of the further atrocities and the protection of the monuments towards the Armenian religious and cultural heritage.

At the end of the Meeting the President of the General Assembly Sergei Gavrilov and the Secretary General Maximos Charakopoulos made a statement on the protection of Christian monuments in Nagorno Karabakh.