Address by Tigran Mkrtchyan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Hellenic Republic during the event dedicated to the 33rd Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Armenia.

27 September, 2024

Spiritual Fathers,

Mr. Ministers, Chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, Members of the Hellenic Parliament, Excellencies Ambassadors, Generals, Honorary Consuls, fellow Armenians,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to you all for being with us to celebrate the 33rd Anniversary of the Independence of Armenia. 33 years ago, on September 21, the Independence Referendum was held in our country and more than 95 percent of the people said their decisive “Yes” to the process of secession from the Soviet Union and building an independent and democratic state. This was a process which embodied long cherished desires and wishes of the Armenian people, first expressed through the Declaration of Independence on August 23, 1991. But this route was full of challenges. Building of a free and independent state was a struggle, which even today Armenia encounters trying to strengthen its sovereignty and peacefully restore its territorial integrity.

September 21 is a moment of joy as I emphasized, but September reminds also of losses and tragedies. Exactly four years ago on this day a full-scale war was unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh region. And just one year ago the final ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh was completed after 9 months of siege, starvation, regular terrorizing and shootings at Armenians in that area, which in the entire recorded history for 3 millennia has been populated by Armenians, until recently. Azerbaijan violated the decisions of the International Court of Human Rights, breached all the articles of November 9, 2020 Ceasefire Statement that pertain to that country and continues to ignore the appeals made by several international organizations and countries. And since neither ethnic cleansing, destruction of Armenian cultural heritage and property of local population, fake trials against 23 Armenians, including former leadership of Nagorno Karabakh, in Baku, nor relentless hate speech are punished, the aggressive terrorizing of Armenia remains a default mode. Armenia time and again has repeated that it is ready to sign a comprehensive Peace Agreement with Azerbaijan, but this can not be done at any cost and definitely not by questioning the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia.

Nevertheless, despite all the difficulties we can not afford to be disheartened. Armenia always has had and still has good friends, indeed. The mutual trust between the Armenians and Greeks formed in centuries, the strong brotherly ties clearly have had their impact on the accomplishment and development of inter-state relations in our days. The Third Republic of Armenia has consistently enjoyed the support of Greece both on bilateral and on international levels in all matters relating to Armenia. Today Greece is one of the most important partners of Armenia in Europe and worldwide.

When talking about Greek-Armenian relations it is impossible not to mention the immense role my dear compatriots, the Greek-Armenians play in strengthening those relations. They were welcomed in Greece since times immemorial through the Armenian genocide and then after the Great Catastrophe. They made indelible contributions to Greece, they took part in carving the modern history of Greece together with our Greek brothers and sisters while cherishing memories of the historic homeland in which their ancestors, our ancestors, established one of the great civilizations of antiquity.

Touching upon the recent developments I can underline with satisfaction that from the point of political dialogue and multi-layer cooperation with Greece this year was one of the most fruitful ones. In January, Armenia hosted the Greek Foreign Minister. Our Foreign Ministers are in contact on a regular basis, the last one of which was the meeting yesterday in New York. In February, Armenia’s Prime Minister visited Athens upon the invitation of his Greek counterpart. The two leaders expressed each other’s support on topics of mutual interest and commonality of positions on international matters. Apart from the bilateral agenda also the issue of Armenia’s deepening ties with the European Union were discussed in which we enjoy the firm support of Greece and for which allow me to express my country’s gratitude. These topics were discussed again during the Prime Ministers meetings in July in the UK during the 4th European Political Community Summit and just two days ago on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

In parallel to political dialogue active cooperation in the defense sector continued. Last December during Armenia’s Defense Minister’s visit to Athens a Cooperation Agreement in the Military-Technical sector was signed. In March this year Armenia’s great friend the National Defense Minister of Greece reciprocated with an official visit to Yerevan, which was another landmark in the strengthening of the strategic cooperation between Armenia and Greece. I am delighted that some of the Armenian students of Evelpidon Military Academy of Greece are with us today during the reception.

Efforts are exerted to enhance the economic relations between our countries. In this respect the signing of a MoU between Enterprise Greece and Enterprise Armenia was very important and long overdue. The trade turnover has doubled over the past two years. Cooperation in the academic field is also advancing. Earlier this year we founded Armenian Studies Center at the Democritus University of Thrace which will hopefully start fully functioning this year.

Also, the Academy of Sciences of Armenia and Academy of Athens signed a cooperation agreement which was again much expected and long overdue.

Ολοκληρώνοντας, επιθυμώ να επισημάνω ότι φιλοξενούμε σήμερα το Σύνολο Ρυθμικής Μουσικής της Αρμενίας. Πρόκειται για ένα συγκρότημα μουσικών της Αρμενίας, το οποίο έχει αποσπάσει εξαιρετικά εγκωμιαστικές κριτικές. Η παράστασή τους θα δικαιώσει τον λόγο της πρόσκλησης τους στην Ελλάδα. Η μουσική ενώνει τους ανθρώπους και η μουσική που θα ακούσουμε σήμερα αποτελεί ένα τεκμήριο αυτού του δεδομένου. Θα ακούσουμε αρμενική μουσική και μερικά τραγούδια του μεγάλου Σαρλ Αζναβούρ, που φέτος εορτάζουμε τα εκατό χρόνια από τη γέννηση του. Επίσης θα ακούσουμε αργεντίνικη, γαλλική και ελληνική μουσική. Όλες αυτές οι μελωδίες διαφέρουν μεταξύ τους, αλλά όλες είναι εξίσου όμορφες. Ανέκαθεν πιστεύω ότι η διπλωματία πρέπει να φυλάει έναν μεγάλο χώρο για τον πολιτισμό και πάντοτε ήμουν υποστηρικτής της πολιτιστικής διπλωματίας και με χαρά μου αναφέρομαι στο προφανές: αυτό ακριβώς κάνουμε σήμερα εδώ!

Σας ευχαριστώ και πάλι για την παρουσία σας κοντά μας.

(Concluding my remarks I would like to underline that today we invited Cadence Music Ensemble from Armenia. It is a group of highly praised professional musicians from Armenia. The performance will clearly show why they are here. Culture unites and the music that we will be enjoying today is a testament to that. We will hear Armenian music, some songs of the great Charles Aznavour, whose 100th Anniversary we are marking now. We will also hear Argentinian, Greek and French music. All of those melodies are rather different but they all sound equally beautiful. I have always believed that diplomacy should reserve a big place for culture and always adhered to promoting cultural diplomacy, and I am delighted to state the obvious – today we are doing exactly that!

Once again, thanks for being here with us.)

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