Within the framework of the working visit of Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Hungary a tête-à-tête meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Hungary took place at the MFA of Armenia. The meeting was continued in an extended format with the participation of both delegations.
Following the meeting Ararat Mirzoyan and Péter Szijjártó held a joint press conference. The statement of the Foreign Minister of Armenia and the answer to the question of journalist are presented below:
"Good afternoon,
Dear Mr. Minister,
I welcome you and your delegation to the Republic of Armenia, Yerevan. As a continuation of our meeting and agreements reached in Poland last year, this is the first visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary to the Republic of Armenia after the long break and restoration of diplomatic relations. I believe that mutual visits really contribute to the development of relations and I want to mention the visit of the Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary to the Republic of Armenia, the visit of our Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures to Hungary, and now your visit to Armenia. I should note that work is underway to organize new mutual visits.
Dear colleagues,
During our today's consultations with Minister Szijjártó we touched upon the perspectives of the Armenia-Hungary dialogue, expressing mutual willingness to take practical and effective steps in different sectors, particularly for realizing the current potential in political dialogue, economic relations, science, education, culture and promoting possible investments. We emphasised the possibility of cooperation in the energy sector and the realization of the possibilities of decentralized cooperation.
I consider the formation of friendly groups in the parliaments of both countries and their further relations and partnership to be important. I believe that all this and the inter-parliamentary cooperation will become the basis for both further improvement of bilateral relations and cooperation on different multilateral platforms.
Of course, I would like to emphasise that we highly appreciate the existence of the Armenian community officially recognized as a national minority in Hungary and the caring attitude towards it by Hungary's authorities. One of the evident testimonies of this is the reopening of St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Catholic Church in Budapest.
Dear attendees,
Today we also discussed issues on the enhancing partnership between Armenia and the European Union. We expressed confidence that the cooperation aimed at promoting economic development in the region, further development based on that logic will have a positive outcome, including with the support of the EU. In this context, we discussed Armenia's involvement in various regional projects, particularly referring to the joint statement of the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of the European Commission of October 5, which stated that the Commission will support Armenia's participation in regional projects, such as the Black Sea electric cable.
We discussed other topics related to Armenia-EU cooperation as well, attached importance and expressed gratitude for Hungary's current participation in the EU monitoring mission in Armenia.
Mr. Minister,
Your visit takes place in a situation where we can talk about the available opportunities, as I mentioned, but we must also be able to adequately assess the general regional developments, which in turn have a significant impact on the security situation and stability of the region.
I am sure that Hungary, also as an EU member state, is well aware of all developments. I would like to emphasise that for a lasting and dignified peace in the South Caucasus for our people it is vital to ensure the exclusion of the use of force and xenophobic policy, because we have already witnessed its manifestations, which we have repeatedly warned about. Only a month ago, the policy of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh was completed, and more than 100,000 Armenians were forced to flee to save their lives and were forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh, left their historic homeland, and now seek safe shelter as refugees in the Republic of Armenia.
It is obvious that lasting peace in the region requires commitment and effective steps by all the countries in the region, and the rejection of maximalist aspirations. It is possible to achieve stable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is possible to sign a peace treaty if there is an unequivocal recognition of the territorial integrity of Armenia and Azerbaijan and delimitation of the borders of the two countries is carried out on the basis of the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration and the latest maps of the USSR. It is no coincidence that these guidelines were reflected in the Granada Quadrilateral Declaration adopted on October 5, to which we also expect the practical support of other international partners.
Addressing the rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and also working towards the protection of the rich Armenian heritage left in Nagorno-Karabakh is, of course, important for creating an atmosphere of mutual trust.
Mr. Szijjártó,
Once again, I would like to thank you for today’s genuine and practical discussions, your willingness to advance our cooperation, and I pass the floor to you with great pleasure”.
Question. /Hayk Magoyan, “Radar" Armenia/. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I address my question to both Foreign Ministers. After the forced displacement of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, the entire Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh is under threat. In the media, various publications can be found regarding the steps aimed at the distortion of the identity of Armenian religious monuments. What steps are being taken, is there involvement of international partners to prevent this vandalism?
Answer: /Ararat Mirzoyan/. Very well, thank you for the question, in fact, me and the honourable minister have already touched on the matter a little bit, but I will add the following. Indeed, after the forced displacement of the Armenian population from Nagorno-Karabakh, the problem of the protection of the Armenian cultural-spiritual heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh has further aggravated. You may remember that we also previously appealed to UNESCO and to our other international partners. There was an agreement, a decision to send a UNESCO mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and neighbouring regions, and in fact, due to many obstacles caused by Azerbaijan, this visit has not taken place until now, but now this mission is even more needed, and we hope that it will happen, the work is still being done in that direction. But I also want to talk about individual countries. Today we are hosting the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary in Armenia and we talked about that today. I also want to thank the Minister, who sincerely expressed his desire to intervene and contribute to this important work, ensuring the preservation of the Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage and accessibility to those places. Again, Mr Minister, thank you.
I would also like to take this opportunity to refer to other occasions that Hungary has shown support and expressed its readiness for collaboration. We truly express our gratitude for the fact that through negotiations Hungary was able to ensure the return of 5 Armenian prisoners of war to the Republic of Armenia. Also now, when we have more than 100,000 refugees, forcibly displaced people in Armenia, they have already taken part in helping them. You just heard that Hungary is willing to provide psychological support to children who need treatment and who have experienced that psychological trauma, including through summer camps, etc. I want to say that we are grateful and value the support and expect the same attitude regarding the topic of cultural heritage.
