YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ara Babloyan met with President of the House of Representatives (Parliament) of Cyprus Demetris Syllouris on March 27 on the sidelines of the 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva, Switzerland, the Armenian Parliament told Armenpress.

Speaker Babloyan highly appreciated the Armenian-Cypriot brotherly relations, stating that the two peoples are linked with historical-cultural, spiritual and value system commonalities the vivid evidence of which is the fact of recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide by Cyprus in 1975. The Parliament Speaker expressed gratitude for the adoption of the resolution criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide by Cyprus’ House of Representatives on April 2, 2015. He expressed confidence that Armenia will continue making efforts in recognition, condemnation and prevention of genocides.

Ara Babloyan said the parliamentary relations between Armenia and Cyprus reached a qualitatively new level over the past years thanks to joint efforts and highlighted the need to intensify the works of the committees of the two parliaments and mutual visits of the delegations.

The Speaker highly appreciated the Cypriot leadership’s persistent support to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. He reaffirmed that the Armenian leadership has always supported and will support Cyprus at different international platforms concerning the Cypriot issue.

The Armenian Parliament Speaker also touched upon the signing of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), expressing hope that Cyprus will soon complete the inner-state procedures necessary for the CEPA to come into force.

Babloyan also talked about the centuries-old friendship of the two peoples and the Armenian community of Cyprus.

In his turn the President of the House of Representatives of Cyprus proposed to develop the strategic partnership based on implementation of concrete programs in different fields. The sides agreed to touch upon this issue during the upcoming visit of the Cypriot delegation to Armenia and to take more practical and concrete steps.

English –translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan