On June 3, Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan met with Archbishop Khoren Doghramadjian, the General Catholicosal Vicar of the Armenian Prelature of Cyprus of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Vartkes Mahdessian, the member of the House of Representatives of Cyprus, as well as the leaders and representatives of Cypriot-Armenian organizations.

Welcoming Minister Mnatsakanyan, Archbishop Khoren Doghramadjian highlighted the importance of holding meetings in such format as a good opportunity to have an open discussion on the issues related to Armenia and issues of the Armenian Diaspora’s concern.

In his remarks Minister Mnatsakanyan highly appreciated the invaluable role of the educational and religious institutions of the Armenian-Cypriot community in preserving the national identity and strengthening the centuries-old Armenian-Cypriot friendship, and expressed hope that the full utilization of the potential of the community will make it possible to deepen and enrich the political agenda between Armenia and Cyprus.

“Relations with Cyprus go beyond the traditional meaning of relations: it is a friendship of peoples, which represent civilizations, peoples, which have a very good memory, a deep sense of history, and the friendship is built on these civilizational foundations," noted the Foreign Minister.

Within this context the Foreign Minister particularly emphasized the role of the Armenian community of Cyprus. "In our case, the Diaspora is not a group of people who once a year get together for coffee; it is a structure with institutional grounds. It is not the number of the Armenian community in Cyprus that matters, but rather the fact that you are represented with profound institutional basis aimed at maintaining what is very important to us - our national identity."

Presenting the goals of his visit and the agenda of the first meeting in trilateral format to be held on June 4 and the prospects of cooperation in such format, Minister Mnatsakanyan underlined: "The goal of my visit is to lay grounds for a new Armenia-Cyprus-Greece trilateral cooperation, which is quite promising and has sufficient potential."

"We have a very promising agenda in the fields of innovation, high technology, creative education, within the framework of which we suggest to expand the cooperation. And I hope that from now on we can expand sectoral cooperation."

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan touched upon the recent domestic political developments in Armenia and the reforms process being implemented by the Government based on the broad popular mandate, as well as the foreign policy priorities of Armenia. "Since the Velvet Revolution in April and May, extremely significant developments happened in Armenia. We addressed our accumulated domestic problems, we demonstrated the power of the state and public institutions.

The uprising of the society, which lead to peaceful, non violent, velvet revolution, not only didn’t destroy the foundations of the country, but contributed to their strengthening. Throughout 27 years, we have built a country that I would call a country of European model. Since 1991 we have chosen this path of state building based on democracy, human rights and freedom," the Minister said.

During the meeting, Minister Mnatsakanyan answered to numerous questions of the representatives of the Armenian community of Cyprus, exchanged views on a wide range of issues.

Afterwards Foreign Minister made a tour to the Surb Astvatsatsin Armenian Apostolic Church.