President Serzh Sargsyan will visit the capitals of the United States and Russia this week to take part in different events, Armenian officials said last week.
Eduard Sharmazanov, the spokesman for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, confirmed on April 30 that Sargsyan will be in Washington on May 7. The representative of the party led by Sargsyan did not specify, however, what meetings the head of state will hold in the United States and whether his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama is planned. He said the presidential administration would come up with additional details later.
Earlier, it was reported that in the U.S. Sargsyan will take part in a religious ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. In particular, he is expected to attend an ecumenical memorial service that will take place at Washington’s National Cathedral on May 7.
According to the website of the steering committee of the National Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, the service will be led by the two supreme heads of the Armenian Apostolic Church, His Holiness Karekin II Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians and His Holiness Aram I Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia. The ceremony is expected to be attended by members of the U.S. Congress and U.S. diplomats.
On May 8, President Sargsyan is expected to be in Moscow for a meeting of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Union and the next day, May 9, the Armenian head of state is scheduled to attend a large military parade in Red Square dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.