Friday, 7 May 2010
Tigran Sargsyan: “A new page opens for the Armenian- Czech relations”
Within the framework of the working visit to the Czech Republic RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan met today with his Czech counterpart Jan Fischer in Prague. In honor of RA Prime Minister and his spouse, Jan Fischer served a working dinner at his villa in Kramari village. During the meeting the Prime Ministers of the two countries discussed issues on improving and deepening the relations between the states, boosting the economic cooperation and working out of development programs in the spheres of energy, machine-tool construction, chemical industry, education, tourism and culture. The parties stated that the cooperation is quite promising and has a great potential. They mentioned that there is an opportunity to deepen and advance the bilateral relations.
Tigran Sargsyan and Jan Fischer touched upon regional issues, as well as issues on the relations of Armenia and the European Union, Armenia and EU Eastern Partnership program.
At the request of reporters, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan summing up the results of the working visit and the meeting of the European People’s Party Bureau Group highlighted the issue of the associative membership of Armenia to the European People’s Party. “During the meeting with the Bureau of EPP group I stressed the main theses which account for the necessity of cooperation between the Armenian Republican Party and the European People’s Party. The cooperation will grant the opportunity of getting acquainted with the broad experience of EPP, with the reforms implemented in Europe and the values, which serve as a ground for these reforms,’ RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan mentioned. He said it was the most important issue of the agenda of the EPP Bureau and currently it has been registered that the Armenian side has already started the cooperation with that significant political unit of Europe.
‘As far as we are currently presenting our problems, concerns and the values, which serve as a basis for the reforms the Armenian Republican Party is carrying out in Armenia, on the other hand, we are interested in the problems and concerns of our European partners and the European Parliament,’ Tigran Sargsyan said. According to him, the meeting in Karlovy Vary was an opportunity to contact with the members of the EPP Bureau, to hear their individual opinions on the current political field of Europe, the system of values, difficulties they experienced on their way of defending those values. ‘We are interested in all these issues, as Europe itself has a number of problems: our partners are concerned with the future of the united Europe, too, especially, there are strong common discussions on values, worrying phenomena and circumstances. It is of great importance to us to get acquainted with the primary problems and issues worrying our political friends. Issues on collaboration between the Western and Eastern parts become clearer if we observe the phenomenon from this position,’ Tigran Sargsyan said.
According to him, the new Eastern Partnership initiative, currently being worked out, involves 6 ex-Soviet Union republics and implies opportunities of learning the lessons of the past and planning a new strategy, new agenda, so that the cooperation corrects the mistakes, failures of the previous phase. ‘From this viewpoint the concerns of our partners became more understandable for us, on the other hand, this helps us make clearer our position, our expectations from the new Neighborhood program and the targets we want to see as the basis of the program,’ Tigran Sargsyan said.
In answer to the question about the Turkish forces, which are cooperating with the EPP, and the possible promotion of peace and stability in the region by the EPP, the Prime Minister informed that there are groups and coordinators within the EPP, which implement works in that direction, especially in the direction of the EU-Turkey cooperation, and are trying to design the system of values for justifying Turkey’s membership to the EU.
‘During the closed discussions they were interested in the attitude of the Republic of Armenia and ARP toward the membership of Turkey. From this viewpoint we stress the reforms ongoing in Turkey and we can say for sure that quite strong reforms have been implemented in that country in the recent decade. There are thousands of intellectuals in Turkey, who accept the fact of the Genocide and express their thoughts over it without being embarrassed. This inspires us hope that sooner or later the historical fact will be recognized by Turkey,’ RA Prime Minister mentioned.
He said that naturally the reforms assisted by the EU have a good influence on this process, because the investment of the European values in Turkey- freedom of speech, tolerance and a number of other ideas propagandized by EPP will create more favorable conditions. According to him, on one hand accepting this system of values Turkey will recognize the fact of Genocide, on the other hand, naturally, having a neighbor state living with democratic values, means having a predictable neighbor.
‘This creates a more favorable atmosphere for Armenia and this is our most important address: implementation of the Neighborhood project is a promotion to integrative processes in the region,’ he mentioned.
As to the meeting with the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Jan Fischer, Tigran Sargsyan said that this meeting is agreed with the opening of ‘a new page, new phase” in the Armenian- Czech relations.
‘Jan Fischer is going to visit Armenia. During this working meeting we had an opportunity to make clearer the agenda of the Armenian- Czech relations including the economic, and political issues, which are of mutual interest. I think that a clearly defined agenda will give an opportunity to make the visit of the Czech Prime Minister more efficient and to make arrangements for forming a favorable field for cooperation between our two countries,’ RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said. He said it refers to signing agreements, making clear the legislature on protecting investments and avoiding double taxation. ‘I suppose we can make clear the spheres, which are of some interest to the private sector as well,’ RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan added.
