ATHENS (Armradio) — The Presidents of Armenia and Greece Serzh Sarkisian and Prokopios Pavlopoulos discussed a wide range of issues as they met in Athens today.
The leaders of the two countries referred to issues on bilateral and global agenda, cooperation within the framework of international organizations, development of Armenian-Greek cooperation in a number of fields of mutual interest, inter-parliamentary ties, international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
The Presidents discussed the Armenia-EU relations and the role of friendly Greece in their development, the crisis in the Middle East and the humanitarian disaster it has caused, consequences of the migrant crisis, which has become a pan-European issue and a serious challenge to Greece.
Following the face-to face meeting, President Pavlopoulos of Greece hosted an official dinner in honor of the Armenian President.
“Armenians and Greeks are more than friends. They are tied by common history and traditions,” President Sarkisian said at the dinner.
“As two ancient civilizations, the Armenian and Hellenic people have worked and created side by side, leaving their trace on the pages of world history. They have fought side by side to earn their right to living. As adherents of the same values and morality, they stand side by side today to earn their right to survive and flourish. We continue to build on this legacy to reinforce the Armenian-Greek friendship.”
President Sarkisian said the two countries have a rich bilateral agenda – from political dialogue to cooperation in the fields of education and culture. “We’re actively cooperating in the military sphere. Greece is an important partner in Armenia-EU relations. The periodic reciprocal visits provide an opportunity to outline new perspectives of cooperation. A vivid example is my current visit, which aims to raise our economic cooperation to a new level based on the existing potential,” President Sarkisian concluded.
President Pavlopoulos noted, in turn, that the Armenian President’s visit is yet another testament to the high level and extreme importance of political, economic and cultural relations between the two countries. “The two peoples survived sufferings at the turn of the 20th century because of the same reason. We’ll not forget the Armenian genocide of 1915. We’re glad to be one of the few countries to have given refuge to deportee Armenians and one of the first countries to have recognized the Armenia Genocide. On the other hand, the Armenian Parliament has recognized the genocide against the Pontian Greeks. We must keep in mind that historic memory is important for the collective consciousness of the humanity, also as for the future of the mankind. Under the conditions of the current crisis we must remember the past not as a means of seeding hatred, but as a tool of escaping such tragedies in the future,” the Greek President said.
President Sarkisian agreed that “commemoration and condemnation of genocides pursue the aim of preventing future genocides and demonstrating that our enemies have not succeeded in their plans to annihilate a whole nation.”
