1 / 7

On May 14, the Head of the RA NA Armenia-Iraq Friendship Group Hovhannes Hovhannisyan and the members met with Alia Mahmoud Salman Al Zubeidi, Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq to Armenia.

Hovhannes Hovhannisyan has noted that Armenia is concerned over deepening its relations with Iraq on the political, parliamentary and economic planes. He has informed that in recent two years serious growth of trade turnover has been registered and has underlined that there are wide perspectives of cooperation development in a number of spheres. The Head of the Friendship Group has assured that the RA National Assembly is ready for close cooperation with Iraq.

Alia Mahmoud Salman Al Zubeidi has noted that the Armenian-Iraqi has historical traditions. Congratulating Hovhannes Hovhannisyan on the occasion of the formation of the Parliamentary Friendship Group, Mrs Salman highlighted the further development of the inter-parliamentary relations and in that issue, the role of the trade-economic potential. Touching upon the opportunities of the efficiency rise of the trade-economic potential use between the two countries, the Charge d'Affaires underlined that the necessity of the exchange of experience in the spheres of culture, education, science, tourism, high technologies and innovations. He has documented that there is still unused great potential of deepening bilateral cooperation.

According to Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, the two peoples have historical, crucial commonalities: they have survived genocides, and works must be done connected with the recognition of genocides. He has noted that the events occurred in Iraq have always been at the centre of attention of Armenia, and the Armenian society has accepted with great pain the facts of human losses and destruction of cultural heritage.

The members of the Friendship Group referred to the issues on the protection of the Kurdish, Yezidi, Assyrian peoples’ rights, the autonomy and the provision of security. The MPs exchanged thoughts on the export of electric energy, internet, the organization of Yerevan-Baghdad direct flights and the involvement of the Armenian specialists in the Iraqi labour market.