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At June 9 press conference the members of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the RA National Assembly and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation led by the Co-Chair Hermine Naghdalyan presented details on the works of the 26^th sitting of the Committee held in Yakutsk on June 3-7. The members of the Committee Naira Zohrabyan, Ruzanna Muradyan, Levon Martirosyan, Rubik Hakobyan and Hayk Babukhanyan took part in the press conference.

The Co-Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee Hermine Naghdalyan informed that within the framework of the 26^th sitting of the Committee in the RF State Duma on June 3 a meeting with the First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Ivan Melnikov was held, during which issues of bilateral cooperation were raised. The parties touched upon Armenia’s full membership to the Eurasian Economic Union, the perspectives of the economic development and international cooperation, which open by joining the EEU.

The Armenian parliamentarians thanked their Russian colleagues for the active participation in the events of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire. During the meeting with the Deputy Speaker of Federal Council Yevgeny Bushmin the participants also talked about it. The Delegation members Levon Martirosyan, Naira Zohrabyan, Rubik Hakobyan, Mikayel Melkumyan and Hayk Babukhanyan referred to a number of issues, among them issues concerning the Armenian side’s positions on the activities of the Minsk Group in the NK conflict settlement and a series of international issues. The Armenian MPs also raised issues of bilateral cooperation, including the sale of weapons, transport communication and other spheres.

On June 5 the 26^th sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the RA NA and the RF FA continued in Yakutsk, capital of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic of the Russian Federation, where the joint Committee had a meeting with the President of Yakutia Yegor Borisov.

The members of the Armenian and Russian sides of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the RA Ivan Volinkin, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the RF, representatives of the regional authorities of Yakutia, of the Armenian community in Yakutia and the Heads of the NGOs attended the sitting.

The item “The Peoples’ Brotherhood is the Pledge of the Victory” dedicated to the 70^th anniversary of the Victory of the Great Patriotic War was on the agenda of the sitting.

The RA NA Deputy Speaker Hermine Naghdalyan made a report on “The Armenians in the Great Patriotic War,” who highlighting the role and importance of the Great Patriotic War considered inadmissible the derogation of that Victory. “The Fascism, Nazism, xenophobia should be absolutely inadmissible. Today the world goes through the creation of the functioning mechanisms of the protection of human rights,” the NA Deputy Speaker noted in her speech.

The works of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the RA NA and the RF FA continued in the Ceremonial Hall of the Institute of Humanitarian Research and the Indigenous Peoples of the North of Yakutsk of the RF Academy of Sciences organized within the framework of the roundtable “The Lessons of History in the Peoples’ Destiny: the Armenian Genocide Centennial.” In the foyer of the hall an exhibition dedicated to the Armenian Genocide was also organized.

Distinctly connecting the lessons of the Armenian Genocide with today’s all-human problems, continuously emphasizing the situation, the disregard of which results in new manifestations of this crime, the Armenian MPs raised the proposal of the RA NA on creating a platform of international cooperation with the slogan “Parliamentarians against Genocide.”

Within the framework of the roundtable the RA NA deputy Naira Zohrabyan, from the Russian side the members of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee, senators Igor Chernishenko, Rafail Zinurov, the member of the State Duma Boris Reznik and other parliamentarians, who expressed their support to the RA NA initiative, took the floor.

At the press conference the NA Deputy Rubik Hakobyan highlighted the Armenian-Russian relations, noting that there should not be wordings in the manifestations which will reflect on them. Levon Martirosyan informed that the problems, which were on the agenda of the Armenian-Russian relations, were discussed at the meeting. Naira Zohrabyan noted that in the State Duma and during the Committee sitting in Yakutsk serious discussions were held over the problems, which exist between the Inter-Parliamentary Delegations of the parliaments of the two countries. Ruzanna Muradyan stated that it was a unique meeting which not only gave an opportunity to meet and have discussions with the Russian counterparts, but also agreements had been reached in the format of different working groups to refer to the issues of bilateral interest, and meet our compatriots living in the Far North.

The Armenian and Russian MPs took part in a number of events organized by the Armenian community in Yakutsk, visited Surp/Saint Karapet Church and took part in the solemn opening of the Cultural Educational Centre.

Let us note that at the next 27^th sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee the theme on “The Development of the Russian-Armenian Cultural Cooperation” will be discussed. A decision was made to hold the next sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee in October-November 2015 in the Republic of Armenia.