As a part of his official visit to Italy, the Armenian President Armen Sarkissian visited the Pontifical Armenian College together with his wife Nouneh Sarkissian and met with the representatives of the Armenian community in Italy.
Referring to the significance of the visit, Sarkissian mentioned that after the pandemic, in the last 2,5 years, he is the first president to come to Italy with a state visit.
“I am proud of that. I am proud that I am representing you, our nation and the citizens of Armenia. Besides the personal relationship and friendship, there is also a principal case, particularly the attitude of the state of Italy and President Mattarella to our nation, state and statehood”, said Sarkissian.
The President mentioned that when Italy was in a difficult situation during the pandemic, he was always in touch with President Mattarella trying to support as much as possible:
“Even a small word and concern of the relative is appreciated and remembered. The same way, when we faced our catastrophe of war last year, I received the support of the Italian president.”
Talking about the war and its aftermath, President Sarkissian expressed deep pain for the loss of dozens of young lives.
“Last year was very hard, we lost many young lives. In principle, we can win and unfortunately lose. In both cases, there is no doubt that those who were fighting were patriotic and did not spare their lives for the homeland. In the early 1990s, we were more prepared for the war and we won. Unfortunately we didn’t make that victory a stabile peace and the third war happened. Using its opportunities and natural resources, Azerbaijan built an army with Turkey’s support. The issue was not the devotion or the courage of the fighters. Yes, this is a great misfortune, the consequences of which are existent to this day, the captured and the missing. During my meetings in Italy, I once again raised all of the difficult issues of our concern, the issues of the borders and the demarcation, the captured and the missing. I asked the Italian side for support.”
President Sarkissian emphasized that all of our national collective strength, including the Diaspora is necessary to succeed.
