Leaders Of Armenia, Greece, Cyprus To Hold Summit In Yerevan

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — The leaders of Armenia, Greece and Cyprus will hold their first-ever trilateral summit in Yerevan in January, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on Tuesday while hosting a delegation led by Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos.

The possibility of such a summit was first addressed during a trilateral meeting of the three countries’ foreign ministers in the Cypriot capital Nicosia in June.

Greeting Pavlopoulos in Yerevan, Pashinyan, as quoted by his press office, said: “The relations between the governments and the peoples of our [two] countries are at a very high level, and I hope that we will be able to establish more effective economic cooperation against this favorable background, as well as increase our level of cooperation in other areas and raise our results.”

“We are looking forward to holding the first-ever Armenia-Greece-Cyprus trilateral summit in Yerevan in January. It is a very important event that will make our relations even more favorable,” the Armenian leader added.

Pashinyan assured the Greek president, who arrived in Yerevan on a two-day official visit today, of the special attitude that Armenia has towards Greece.

Pavlopoulos, for his part, welcomed the efforts made by Armenia and Armenians towards the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

“This is very important, and we support this effort. On the other hand, we are glad that Armenia has recognized the Pontic Greek Genocide. We are also pleased that the U.S. House of Representatives recently recognized the Armenian Genocide. It is very important,” said the Greek president, as quoted by the Armenian prime minister’s press office.

Armenia, Greece and Cyprus share a long history of mutual animosity with Turkey. Meeting in 2016 with then Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, Greece’s then Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the Armenian and Greek peoples were both victims of genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks during World War One. Ankara condemned that statement.