YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, ARMENPRESS. President of the National Assembly of Armenia Ara Babloyan met with the President of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus Demetris Syllouris in Saint Petersburg on October 16.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Armenian President’s Office, the President of the Armenian parliament noted that the firm relations of the two countries are conditioned by the historical-cultural, spiritual and system of values commonalities, as well as by the same destiny. In Mr. Babloyan’s word, one of the vivid evidences of the historically established fraternal relations between the Armenian and Cypriot peoples is the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide by Cyprus already in 1975. He expressed his gratitude for the unanimous adoption of the Resolution criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide by the House of Representatives on 2 April 2015.

Talking about the Nagorno Karabakh problem, Ara Babloyan underlined that the negotiating way of the conflict solution has no alternative. In this issue he highly assessed the resolute support of Cyprus’ authorities to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

The parties highlighted the further activation of the parliamentary delegations’ mutual visits and the cooperation in the inter-parliamentary structures.

The Armenian community of Cyprus was touched upon: it was noted that the Armenians of Cyprus are full-fledged members of the society of Cyprus, they have great role in the public and political life of the country, as well as they serve an important ring connecting our two countries.

The heads of the parliaments invited each other to visit their countries.

On October 16, the President of the National Asembly of Armenia Ara Babloyan also met with the Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Ireland Seán Ó Fearghaíl.

Ara Babloyan noted that Armenia is concerned about expanding its relations with Ireland in bilateral and multilateral formats. In his opinion, a great potential exists for the activation of the political dialogue and the development of relations between Armenia and Ireland.

The Head of the Parliament has underlined that Armenia gives great importance to the development of the relations with the EU member countries, including Ireland.

Touching upon one of the problems of the foreign policy agenda of Armenia, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Ara Babloyan highlighted the balanced position of Ireland in the problem settlement. “Armenia adheres to the exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict and highly assesses the consistent efforts of the OSCE Minsk Troup Co-Chairs,” the President of the Armenian parliament said.

In the context of the development of the inter-state relations the sides emphasized the role of the parliamentary diplomacy: it is one of the important levers of advancing the political dialogue between the countries. The interlocutors considered necessary the strengthening of the ties between the Friendship Groups.

The Head of the Parliament of Ireland has underlined that the two countries have numerous similarities. He highly assessed the steps taken for the development of democracy in Armenia.

Regarding the settlement of the conflicts, the Speaker of the Irish Parliament has expressed conviction that in that issue the only way is the peaceful negotiations.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl has noted that the Armenians living in Ireland have great contribution to the development of the country.

Ara Babloyan invited the Speaker of the Irish Parliament to Armenia.