The Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Republic of Armenia celebrate today 25 years of diplomatic relations.
To mark this Silver Jubilee an exchange of official letters of the Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta and of the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs was held at the Magistral Palace. It was Garen Nazarian, Ambassador of Armenia to the Order of Malta, who delivered the letter of his Minister.
“We highly value our centuries-old cordial ties as a solid basis for further developing bilateral and multilateral cooperation between Armenia and the Order of Malta. The Order of Malta’s operational promptness has been instrumental in carrying out humanitarian activities in conflict-prone regions” stated the letter of the Foreign Affairs Minister of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan.
“I would like to extend to you my very best wishes and the assurance of our intention to further strengthen cooperation both in the diplomatic and the humanitarian field, as well as the promotion of our common shared Christian values” affirmed in his written communication the Grand Chancellor Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo recalling the origins of the existing excellent relations, that go back far ahead of 1998.
“Already in the 12th century the first Knights of the Order in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia were established, followed by the election, in the 14th century, of Fra’ Dieudonné de Gozon, to the high office of Grand Master of the Order, later proclaimed “Protector of Armenia” by the King of Armenia himself”.
The Order of Malta was active in the 20th century during the Armenian genocide providing first assistance to refugees with a medical dispensary in Thessaloniki. Later in 1989, after the Armenian earthquake, the Order of Malta Emergency Teams assisted the local population.
The centuries old relations were finally crowned on 29th May 1998, with the formal establishment of bilateral relations, and further strengthened with the exchange of high-level visits both to and from Armenia and the consolidation of the Orders’ humanitarian activities in Armenia with the implementation of a Cooperation Agreement signed in 2018.
