The Government of the Republic of Armenia

During his stay in Yekaterinburg, Republic of Armenia Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan visited the Ural Federal University. The Prime Minister met the professors and the students of the university, presented his points of view on the developments in the world to the auditory and answered a few questions.
Welcoming the guests, the rector of the Ural Federal University said that there are Armenian students in the university, too, and that their goal is to collaborate with the YSU. According to the rector, many of the university graduates’ activities have been conducted in Armenian enterprises, particularly at the Metsamor Nuclear Station, and they participated at the search and rescue activities and provided humanitarian assistance during the earthquake in Spitak.
According to him an Armenian research center has been established in the Ural Federal University, which regularly discusses and examines the events taking place in the South Caucasus. The questions, addressed to Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan related to the Armenian-Turkish relations, the economic and political developments of Armenia, and the implementation of the projects in the field of tourism.
In response to the question about the international recognition of the Armenian genocide, the Prime Minister said, that a great campaign is carried out on the direction. “Armenian public structures carry out a great propaganda worldwide. Such institutions are operating in USA and France. There are dozens of today countries that have recognized and condemned the Armenian genocide by the force of law. We are very interested in the activities held for the international recognition of the tragedy of 1915 and we contribute to the operations of the existing institutions that work for this issue: the goal is to present the reality of the genocide, its history and consequences to the whole world,” Tigran Sargsyan said. The head of the Armenian government reminded about Serzh Sargsyan’s initiative to settle relations with Turkey without any preconditions, which, however, has not become reality until now because of Turkey. “Armenia has adopted such provisions of a foreign policy that aim to normalize relations with its neighbors. We are willing to normalize relations with everyone without any preconditions, but they are not ready for it. When Armenian-Turkish protocols had been signed and Armenia presented them to the National Assembly for ratification, Turkey stepped back putting preconditionsm which are not acceptable for us, referring the Armenian genocide and Nagorno Karabakh issues in front of Armenia,” Tigran Sargsyan said.
Talking about Armenia’s economic program, the head of government noted that due to the economic crisis in 2009, decline was observed in this field. "We implemented anti-crisis actions to confront it. As a result, we made a shift to economic diversification, helped small and medium business representatives to continue their activities. It is true that it increased the budget deficit and the amount of public debt, but the economy of Armenia recovered. This year decline was only observed in agriculture, though we are continue to tackle the problems,” Tigran Sargsyan noted.
According to the Prime-Minister tourism is one of the most developed fields in Armenia. “There is a great potential for tourism development in Armenia. A few days ago in a special location, in Tatev, world’s longest ropeway was opened and it will fins its place on the world tourism map. Programs are being carried out to develop tourism in Jermuk, Arzni and Sevan: the infrastructures of the latters are being restored”, said the prime-minister of Armenia hoping that the students who were present at the meeting would visit Armenian tourism centers and will be introduced to the history of Armenia.
The following the meeting, the Prime Minister-led delegation visited “Uralelektromed” factory in Yekaterinburg, was introduced to its gold casting, copper processing production activities. When talking to the journalist, the director of the factory Vladimir Kolotushkin said that he was aware about the industrial enterprises that operated in the soviet Armenia. Of course there is a great potential for cooperation, which we want to implement. The company produces 30 thousand tons of metal annually, 50% of which is being exported to the countries of the South Asia”, he said.