Karen Ghazaryan
Head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau’s Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office Giro Manoyan summed up the results of the Third Convention of European Armenians held in Brussels October 14-15.
On the first day the participants discussed Armenian issues. The second-day discussions took place at the European parliament and featured MEPs. Attending the event were also His Holiness Aram I, the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, representative of the Catholicos of All Armenians, Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan and NKR President Bako Sahakyan.
Giro Manoyan said issues related to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide were discussed. It was decided to bring together Armenian intellectuals to discuss the works in Europe in that direction. It was noted that recognition is not an end in itself, recognition envisages reimbursement, as well.
Manoyan said another convention will be called to discuss the issue of organization of communities, taking into consideration that a large number of Armenians have moved to Europe over the past 25 years.
The ways to resist the activity of Turkish-Azerbaijani lobbyist groups were also on the agenda. Reference was made to the state of Armenians in Syria and Javakhk.
Giro Manoyan said former French Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Fassier offered an interesting speech on the Karabakh issue. He urged Russia to refuse from the policy of “divide to rule” and called on the US not to take into consideration its strategic partnership with Turkey during its mediation in the Karabakh issue.
Manoyan said some European MPs expressed their surprise at Armenia’s unexpected decision to join the Customs Union.
