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On June 3, the 27^th sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the RA National Assembly and the RF Federal Assembly ended the work in Kazan.

Within the framework of the sitting the Co-Chairs of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee Hermine Naghdalyan and Nikolay Ryzhkov met with the Chairman of Tatarstan State Council Farid Mukhametshin. During the meeting both sides highlighted the necessity of further deepening of cooperation between the two countries at inter-state, as well as regional level. The parliamentarians exchanged thoughts over the further expansion of economic ties and issues of mutual interest, touched upon the problems concerning Tatarstan’s multi-national society. In the Parliament of Tatarstan the Armenian Delegation took part in the working reception, as well as visited the Museum of Parliamentarism of the Republic of Tatarstan, where the Co-Chairs of the Inter-parliamentary Committee Hermine Naghdalyan and Nikolay Ryzhkov left a note in the Book of Memorable Guests of the Museum.

The main theme of the agenda of the second part of the 27^th sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the RA NA and the RF FA was the possibilities of the development of the Armenian-Russian economic ties, including the study of Tatarstan’s example.

The Chairman of Tatarstan State Council Farid Mukhametshin, the First President of the country Mintimer Shaimiev, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy took part in the sitting.

On his welcoming remarks the Speaker of Tatarstan Parliament presented to his Armenian counterparts the details of the economic, public-political life of the country, being concentrated on the inter-ethnic aspects. As Chairman of the Multi-National Peoples' Assembly of Tatarstan, Farid Mukhametshin highly assessed the role of the big number of Armenian community living in Tatarstan in the social-economic, public-political life of the country and particularly noted: “Today more than 7000 Armenians live in Tatarstan, and they have possibility to attend Sunday educational centres, preserve their Mother tongue, culture, history and traditions and today with their activities they greatly promote the strengthening of the friendship of the Armenians of Tatarstan and Armenia, as well as of the two nations.”

The Co-Chairs of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee Hermine Naghdalyan and Nikolay Ryzhkov moderated the 27^th sitting of the Inter-parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the RA NA and the RF FA. Within the framework of the agenda items of the sitting the members debated the perspectives of the economic, social and cultural development of cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Tatarstan, including the possibilities of the creation of economic free zones, and the involvement of the foreign investments. The economic possibilities of Tatarstan and today’s achievements in the spheres of the production of the oil-chemical, medical, machinery equipment and the information technologies during the last ten years was comprehensively studied. The parliamentarians considered important the holding of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee works during the recent period not only in the capitals, but also in the regions, which more promotes the development and expansion of the inter-regional economic and cultural cooperation.

The items on the implementation of the decisions made within the framework of the 25^th sitting of the Committee was also debated on the sitting agenda, including the perspectives of the development of cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation in the Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic territory, as well as organizational problems regarding the 5^th Armenian-Russian Inter-regional Forum and the next, 28^th sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee. The Armenian MPs proposed to hold the regular Armenian-Russian Inter-Regional Forum in the Russian Federation.

The works of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee were summed up at the press conference, where the RA NA Deputy Speaker, the Co-Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation Hermine Naghdalyan commented the Resolution on Recognition of the Armenian Genocide adopted the day before by Germany: “I think that the world once again became convinced that the fair approach towards of all manifestations of history: the gravest cases even for certain countries the fair approach is the only way, by which, in general, the mankind should go forward. If we want that the genocides will never be repeated in any country, then it is needed, that today all of us, the political forces, the states shall have political will and civil courage of accepting mistakes made.”

In his turn the Chairman of Tatarstan State Council Farid Mukhametshin emphasized the popular diplomacy, underscoring the inter-parliamentary similar contacts let to more closely get acquainted with the relations and strengthen them at different levels: political, economic, social, cultural and spiritual.

After the end of the 27^th sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation the Armenian parliamentarians visited the Historical-Cultural Centre of the City of Kazan, House-Museum of the Peoples’ Friendship of Tatarstan, met with the representatives of the Armenian community residing in Tatarstan, where the Chairman of the Armenian National-Cultural Autonomy of Russia’s Union of Armenians Mikayel Khachaturyan and the Chairman of Almetyevsk Armenian Community of Tatarstan Volodya Melkonyan were handed diplomas.

On June 4, the Armenian Parliamentary Delegation visited the Laishev Municipal Region of the Republic of Tatarstan, where took part in Sabantuy National Festival.