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On November 9 the Vice President of the National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov received the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Greece to Armenia Ioannis Taghis.

Welcoming the Ambassador, the NA Vice President congratulated him on the occasion of the appointment as the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Greece to Armenia and expressed hope he would give his contribution to more developing the Armenian-Greek relations.

Expressing his gratitude for warm reception the Ambassador IoannisTaghis conditioned the possibility of dynamic development of the two countries by the centuries-old friendship of the Armenian and Greek peoples, similarities of our civilizations and the presence of the Armenian community in Greece and the Greek in Armenia. According to the Ambassador, those opportunities are big in the political, economic and cultural spheres and he would do his best to support their realization.

In the course of the meeting issues pertaining to the perspectives of the developments of relations between the parliaments, more activating the works and mutual visits of the inter-parliamentary committees, possible support of Greece to Armenia, which had taken the path into European integration and regional security were discussed.

The NA Vice President thanked the Ambassador for the steps taken in recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide by Greece and the balanced position regarding the NKR conflict, saying that the Armenian people did not speak only their pain: the RA National Assembly called on the parliaments of the world for the recognition of the genocide of other Christian nations including the Greeks from Pontus, which had taken place in the Ottoman Empire. It had been 5 years that on May 19 in Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex the Armenian people together with the Greek brothers pay tribute to the Pontic Greeks who fell victims of genocide, and they condemn the crime committed by the Ottoman Turkey.

Touching upon the NKR problem Eduard Sharmazanov ensured that Armenia was for the solution of the problem through peaceful negotiations within the framework of international norms, whereas Azerbaijan did not refuse the racist policy, the last expression of which was the well-known event of acquitting the criminal Safarov and heroizing him, which contradicted the international legal norms.

The Ambassador assured that Greece always supported and would continue to support the regulation of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict through peaceful negotiations in the frames of OSCE Minsk Group, and as to Safarov's release the Greek Ambassador qualified it as a big mistake, at the same time expressing hope that this circumstance would not have negative effect on the process of peaceful negotiations.

In the course of the meeting the sides also touched upon the presidential elections to be held in Armenia. Eduard Sharmazanov conditioned the importance of those elections first of all, from the view of the development of democracy in Armenia and assured that the Republican Party, and the authorities would do their best in order the elections would correspond the standards of democracy, and they would be the best of all the presidential elections in Armenia, as without fair and transparent elections it was not possible to talk neither about the development of the country, nor about the national security. “Armenia is resolute in democratic reforms and their continuity”, Eduard Sharmazanov noted.