Galust Sahakyan: Baku's destructive stand escalates situation in Karabakh conflict zone

The European Union has always been one of the most important partners of Armenia, Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Galust Sahakyan said during a meeting with Vice President of the European Parliament Ryszard Czarnecki. 

The press office of the Armenian National Assembly quotes Sahakyan as saying, "We have repeatedly stressed that the cooperation with the EU is based first of all on the common system of values. We intend to continue promoting and expanding the cooperation." He recalled that the mandate for the launch of Armenia-EU talks on a new legally binding agreement has already been provided. When speaking of Armenia's EEU membership, Sahakyan stressed that it meets official Yerevan's interests.     
Sahakyan also spoke of the Karabakh peace process. He said that this issue is one of the priorities of Armenia's foreign policy and it should be settled within the OSCE Minsk Group format. 

The Speaker expressed his concern about Azerbaijan's destructive stand, which results in escalation of the tension in the Karabakh conflict zone and in new casualties. "Unresolved conflicts cannot justify the destruction of fundamental human rights and freedoms. The caviar diplomacy has become the state policy of Azerbaijan," he said, recalling that Azerbaijan decided to withdraw from the Euronest and qualifying it as one more evidence of authoritarianism in that country.    
Sahakyan highly praised Ryszard Czarnecki's participation in the events commemorating the Armenian Genocide Centenary. For his part, Czarnecki noted that this is his fourth visit to Armenia but he cannot forget his participation in the Armenian Genocide Centenary events. He added that he was glad to represent the EU at those events on April 24.   
He also stressed the significance of expansion of the Armenia-EU mutually beneficial cooperation.  Sahakyan awarded a Medal of Honor of the Armenian National Assembly to Ryszard Czarnecki.