April 14, National Assembly President Ashot Ghoulyan received a delegation of the members of Francophone Youth Parliament of Armenia headed by its director and the RA NA parliamentarian, Margarit Yesayan.

Welcoming the guests, Head of the National Assembly Ashot Ghoulyan noted the importance of Francophone youth group’s familiarization visit to Artsakh and underlined the role of inter-parliamentary ties.

"By gathering of your peers and friends around you, you have the opportunity to expand the scope of support to our common cause and to contribute to the realization of our objectives for the international recognition of Artsakh, presentation of our region to the world, to develop the basis of the Armenian-French friendship," said Ashot Ghoulyan.

Expressing gratitude for the reception, Margarit Yesayan said that Armenia attaches great importance to the visit of the Francophone Youth Parliament to Artsakh, which will enable them to come up with more reliable source of information for further of communication with foreign organizations or their friends.

Touching upon the involvement of the young Francophones of Artsakh in the international programs of the Francophone, member of the RA Youth Parliament, Shiraz Hovakimian noted that Artsakh has every opportunity to engage the French countries in the atmosphere and the task of the youth is to position Artsakh as the bearer of the values of the Francophonie.

Then the NA President touched upon domestic and foreign policy developments in Armenia and Artsakh, historical and current cooperation with France.

During the meeting, prospects for bilateral cooperation were discussed and concrete steps were outlined.

The deputy of the National Assembly, member of the circle of friendship "Karabakh-France" Lernik Hovhannisyan took part in the meeting.

In the evening a meeting of the Francophone youth of Artsakh and Armenia took place in the small conference hall of the National Assembly, during which they signed a joint memorandum. The memo reads as follows:

"We, the members of the Youth Parliament of the Francophones of the Republic of Armenia, are sure that our colleagues from Artsakh can help the Republic of Artsakh become a full member of a large Francophone family, and we are ready to assist our colleagues in the responsible work of creating and establishing a francophone parliament."

It should be noted that in the morning members of the Francophone youth parliament visited school N1 in Stepanakert, where they attended French lessons and got acquainted with francophone students there.

In the afternoon, the group visited one of the military units of the Artsakh Defense Army, communicated with servicemen, got acquainted with their everyday life and visited the sights of the city of Shushi.