Press Office
Athens, 8 July 2021
Meeting of Head of Greek Delegation to Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy with Delegation from National Assembly of Armenia
"The fraternal relations between Greece and Armenia continue strong and indelible through time. Considering our peoples are children of the glorious byzantine civilization and withstood the test of a long-lasting ottoman slavery, which ended in the first genocides of the 20th century in Asia Minor, I could say that we are united in blood” stressed the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), New Democracy MP Maximos Charakopoulos, in his meeting with a delegation from the National Assembly of Armenia, which visited the Hellenic Parliament in the framework of the European Twinning Project between the Hellenic Parliament and the National Assembly of Armenia.
Mr. Charakopoulos noted that our two peoples “continue to fight today for the same ideals, the rules of international law and the principles of humanism against a common threat, i.e. neo-Ottoman revisionism”.
The Twinning Project of the Hellenic Parliament with the National Assembly of Armenia is a two-year project funded by the European Commission that seeks to strengthen the National Assembly of Armenia by providing know-how on parliamentary procedures. The Italian Parliament also participates in the project.
Mr. Charakopoulos referred in detail to the actions of the IAO – a founding member of which is Armenia – for the protection of the Christian population of the Middle East and the strengthening of Christian values and traditions in Europe. He emphasized the very grave issue of the destruction or alteration of the nature of Christian monuments, pointing out that “we do not have the right to turn a blind eye to arbitrary actions, such as converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, a move by the Turkish leadership. We will continue to remind the international community of its obligation to call Ankara to order. But also more broadly, similar actions which are part of a policy of “genocide of memory” are to be fully condemned. This applies also to the destruction of Orthodox churches in occupied Cyprus, Christian monuments in Syria, where the occupying Turkish army is located, in Kosovo and Metohija, and of course in Nagorno Karabakh”.
At this point the Head of the IAO recalled the statement issued recently, authorised by the Secretariat of the international organization, calling on international organisations to protect Armenian monuments located in areas that have fallen under the sovereignty of Azerbaijan.
Participating in the Armenian delegation were the Political Advisors of the President of the National Assembly of Armenia Vakhan Kostanyan, David Karapetyan and Korioun Sarkissyan, as well as the Head of the project at the National Assembly of Armenia Marie Manukian.
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