Georgian leaders not to attend Armenian genocide commemoration in Yerevan
20.04.2015,
17:45
President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili will not come to Armenia to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, Russian Interfax news agency said.
YEREVAN, April 20. / ARKA /. President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili will not come to Armenia to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, Russian Interfax news agency said.
Interfax quoted Tengiz Pkhaladze, an aide to Margvelashvili, as saying that Georgia had informed Armenian authorities through diplomatic channels that president Margvelashvili will not be able to come to Armenia on April 23-24 because he will be welcoming Byelorussian president Alexander Lukashenko who will be visiting Georgia on the same days with an official visit.
The Georgian government did not confirm earlier reports that Georgian prime minister Irakli Gharibashvili will be present in Armenia on April 23-24.
Last week Georgian parliament declined a motion to consider the recognition of the Armenian Genocide presented by the ethnic Armenian MP Samvel Petrosyan.
Independent experts say Georgia is reluctant to recognize the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide not to worsen relations with neighboring Turkey and Azerbaijan, its key economic partners.-0-
