YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan delivered a speech at the Council session of the CIS heads of state in Sochi, press service of the President’s Office told Armenpress.

“Dear Mr. Chairman,

Dear heads of state and delegation,

First of all I want to thank you, Mr. Vladimir Putin for the traditional warm reception, as well as for organizing the summit at such a high level.

The agenda of today’s meeting, the issues included in it reflect the effectiveness of Russia’s active chairmanship in the Commonwealth first of all directed towards the further development of CIS taking into account the adaptation to contemporary realities. I would like to touch upon certain topics, from our perspective, relevant for the CIS and interstate partnership. Subjective discussions on a number of issues have launched that are reflected in the decision of the last year over adaptation. We support this process which must find its actual manifestation in the cooperation of states interested in mutual partnership in all possible spheres.

Another important direction of joint work is the cooperation in humanitarian field. We support the statement of the Russian side on Support to Family Institute and Traditional Family Values acknowledging that the family institute is the foundation of the society, as well as a factor uniting peoples.

Being interested in expanding the cooperation in humanitarian field, we believe that ‘Cultural Capitals’ inter-state program is a useful initiative for maintaining and developing cultural ties of the CIS states.

Next year it is planned to declare the Armenian town of Goris the cultural capital of the Commonwealth. We invite the representatives of the CIS states to participate in events which will be held during 2018 in that perfect corner of Armenia’s Syunik province. I would also like to emphasize the importance of declaring 2019 as the Year of Book, and 2020 as the Year of the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War.

Five years ago, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Armenian typography, UNESCO declared Yerevan as the world capital of book - an event which we widely celebrated with the participation of guests, including from the CIS countries.

By attaching great importance to the development of human capital, we have chosen the target of numerous events the expansion of readers’ circle since having a reader, developed society is a vital necessity for us.

I am convinced that the upcoming jubilee of the Great Victory is one more chance to respect the memory of those fallen in fight against fascism. There is no family in Armenia which hasn’t passed through this tragedy: each second Armenian has not returned from the frontline. This is also a good chance to cooperate against fascism ideology restoration attempts, spread of xenophobia and racism in the world.

Armenia has repeatedly highlighted the need for the international community to unite efforts in fight against phenomena like international terrorism, extremism and organized crime. I support the adoption of respective documents that regulate the cooperation of the CIS states in fight against legalization of illicit proceeds, terrorism financing, drug business and other international crimes.