Yerevan tells Kyiv stance on right to self-determination unchanged

Yerevan tells Kyiv stance on right to self-determination unchanged

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia’s principled stance on people’s right to self-determination, repeatedly expressed on numerous occasions, remains unchanged, Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said at the Friday, March 21 meeting with Ukrainian envoy Ivan Kukhta, Armenia Now reported.

Earlier that day Kukhta was recalled by Kyiv over Armenia’s stance on the Crimean referendum expressed during a telephone conversation between President Serzh Sargsyan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. However, as Tert.am reported citing the representative of the Ukrainian embassy in Yerevan Galina Mikhalenko, at present, the envoy is in the Armenian capital and continues with his duties.

According to the presidential press service, during their March 19 telephone conversation the two leaders “shared opinions regarding the crisis in Ukraine and the ways out of it.” “In that context the Presidents touched upon the situation after the referendum in Crimea and stated that the latter constitutes another case of exercising peoples’ right to self-determination through free expression of will. At the same time the Presidents stressed the importance of committing to the norms and principles of the international law, first and foremost the UN Charter,” the press release said.

As reported by the Foreign Ministry’s official website, at the meeting with the envoy, Kocharyan also stressed that “the centuries-old relations between the friendly peoples of Armenia and Ukraine form a solid basis on which the interaction between the two countries is built.”

Earlier on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, through an official, warned Yerevan of “serious damage” to bilateral ties and demanded an official explanation regarding its stance on Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and annexation to Russia. At the same time, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danilo Lubkivsky said that Armenia’s ambassador in Kyiv had twice been summoned to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister and handed an official note.

Meanwhile, the Armenian leader sought to reach out to the Ukrainian people as he spoke during a presidential awards ceremony honoring artists, writers and scientists.

Olena Fetisova, Ukrainian screenwriter, producer and co-director of a new feature film about Soviet-Armenian filmmaker Sergey Paradjanov, was among the honorees. The Ukrainian, however, decided against accepting the award in protest against Sargsyan’s de-facto acceptance of the outcome of the internationally condemned referendum in Crimea.

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