The interview of Armen Melkonian, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Egypt, was published in March edition of the Egyptian “Diplomat” magazine in Arabic.

In regard with the Armenian-Egyptian relations the Ambassador noted, that they are based on strong historical and traditional links of two friendly nations. Ambassador stressed the existence of high-level dialogue and atmosphere of mutual understanding between Armenia and Egypt. In the context of development agenda of mutually beneficial cooperation Ambassador emphasized the fields of trade and economy, culture, tourism, and others.

Within the framework of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue Ambassador Melkonian presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs towards exclusively peaceful settlement of the issue. Referring to destructive behavior of Azerbaijan, the Ambassador stressed that official Baku is continuously rejects all the proposals of the Co-Chairs aimed at the peaceful settlement of the conflict, and permanently violates the ceasefire regime including by the use of heavy weaponry. “It is not a coincidence that the Co-Chairs issued targeted calls addressed to Baku to respect its commitments to the peaceful settlement of the conflict”, the Armenian Ambassador mentioned.

Ambassador Melkonian also touched upon the current phase and the perspectives of development of relations between Armenia and the Arab countries, as well as the Armenian communities there. Ambassador noted that Armenia had always strongly condemned the crimes of terrorist organizations in the Middle East and appealed for joint efforts of international community to fight against them. Using various international platforms Armenia reportedly expressed its concerns about the security situation and violation of human rights of ethnic and religious minorities of the Middle East, including Syrian Armenians, and destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Syria.

In the interview Ambassador Melkonian touched upon the Armenian Genocide Centennial events held throughout the world and their message. In this context the Ambassador criticized the official Ankara’s policy of denialism, which equals to continuation of the Genocide.