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On July 17 the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov received members of the House of Commons of Canada, Deputy Chairmen of Canada-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group Jim Karygiannis and Alexandre Boulerice.

Welcoming the Canadian deputies’ visit to the Armenian Parliament, Eduard Sharmazanov has noted that Canada is a friendly country, and though it is separated from Armenia by ocean, but the territory cannot have an influence on good relations. In the name of the representatives of the House of Commons, he expressed his gratitude to Canada for recognizing the Armenian Genocide and the benefit of Armenians during the years. The RA National Assembly Vice President highlighted the visit of the Canadian deputies leaving for Nagorno Karabakh to take part in the presidential elections with Observation Mission for the Artsakh people, which, in his word, shows that a democratic country, as Canada, is interested in extending the democracy in the NK.

Thanking for the shown warmth the Canadian guests stressed that despite the fact that many were against their visit, particularly, Azerbaijanis, but they had big wish to witness the establishment of democracy in Nagorno Karabakh. In their word, Canada shows big interest in all the countries, where the democracy is one way of establishment.

As the Canadian parliamentarians noticed, about hundreds of thousands of Armenians living in Canada are very active: the Armenian community was in the second-third place with its influence, “the Armenian fire is always bright.”

The members of the House of Commons of Canada talked about the need of having an Embassy in Armenia, in response to which Mr Sharmazanov noted that the Armenian side was always interested in the relationship at higher level. An opinion was expressed that they should activate the parliamentary mutual visits, which in its turn would boost the strengthening and development of good relations. Eduard Sharmazanov noticed that Armenia had been the first in the South Caucasus that opened an Embassy in Ottawa, which testified to the importance of the Armenian-Canadian relations.

The Canadian MPs expressed hope that in Nagorno Karabakh the parliamentary elections would hold at high level and presented their idea to initiate a group called “Friends of Nagorno Karabakh” returning to Karabakh, which was accepted with big inspiration by the RA National Assembly Deputy Speaker. The latter noted that it was a brilliant idea, expressing conviction that Armenia and the whole community would welcome, as it was a vivid example how to support the young democratic country.

In the course of the meeting other issues of bilateral interest were also discussed.