Greece to Act for Closer EU-Armenia Relations: President Pavlopoulos

The President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopios Pavlopoulos, will arrive in Armenia on an official visit with his wife, Vlasia Pavlopoulou, on November 5. Ahead of the visit, Prokopios Pavlopoulos provided an exclusive statement to Armenpress.

“The Greek-Armenian relations have reached an exceptional level, rooted in a distant past and based on strong friendship, mutual understanding, as well as creative and effective cooperation. Our relations have indeed achieved a level of harmony that extends beyond bilateral relations into a broader field of international cooperation, as our corresponding views on a number of important international issues significantly coincide, particularly concerning the protection and strengthening of Peace, Human Rights, and Social Justice. In this regard, the main political and institutional foundations of our efforts are the comprehensive application of international law.

The trilateral cooperation between Greece, Cyprus, and Armenia strengthens the aforementioned parameters of our joint work. Although the diaspora issues of each country are the starting point of this cooperation, it has also received broader momentum, leading to multilateral cooperation among the three nations. Nevertheless, the foundations of the absolute sincerity and close cooperation between Greece and Armenia are rooted in shared realities of martyrdom. While we do not nurture any feelings of revenge towards the perpetrators, we cannot allow ourselves even for a moment to forget what has happened. It is this memory of experience and the reminders that compel us to advance the principle of ‘never again.’ This reality of martyrdom is soaked in the blood of the victims of two horrific genocides, on one hand, that of the Armenian Genocide, and on the other, the genocide of the Pontic Greeks.

It is well-known that Greece has led the way in this issue by recognizing the Armenian Genocide in 1996 and criminalizing its denial in 2014. We Greeks warmly welcome the remarkable expansion of recognition of the Armenian Genocide, one of the most notable examples being the recent resolution from the United States Congress. On the occasion of this visit to Armenia, I consider it my duty to declare that Greece firmly and tenaciously advocates for peace, prosperity, and human rights in every country, not just in its allies and neighbors. The only principle guiding us in defending these values is the clear and multilateral application of International and European Law.

Following this policy, Greece primarily recognizes the necessity for the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue and supports its resolution based solely on international law. Therefore, in the search for a peaceful settlement, it supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group. Secondly, Greece vigorously stands for closer relations between the European Union and Armenia. The exceptional priority we have given to initiating the necessary procedures for the ratification of the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement confirms the importance we attribute to Greek-Armenian relations,” stated President Pavlopoulos in his announcement.