YEREVAN, May 29 (RIA Novosti) - Prince Charles, the 64-year-old heir to the British throne, arrived in Armenia on Tuesday on a first-ever visit by a member of the British royal family, the News Armenia agency said.
The private visit will last until May 30, the UK embassy in Yerevan's press service said. The visit was organized following an invitation from the “Yerevan, My Love” charity foundation, whose activities are directed at preserving landmark historic sites of Armenia’s ancient capital.
During his planned visit to Matenadaran, an ancient manuscript repository and research center in Yerevan, Prince Charles was greeted by a group of environmentalists protesting against the opening of the Amulsar gold mine.
During his visit, Prince Charles is also expected to meet with President Serzh Sarkisian and leader of the Armenian Orthodox Church, Catholicos Karekin II.
Public organizations representing Armenia’s neighbor and arch-enemy, Azerbaijan, have already reacted to the visit. The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS), a UK-registered organization dedicated to raising awareness of Azerbaijan issues, invited Prince Charles to “find the opportunity to cross the border to neighboring Azerbaijan,” in a statement carried by a leading independent Azerbaijani news agency, APA.
“Of course, Prince Charles will have some difficulty in crossing the border, as some 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s lands are still under Armenian occupation,” the statement reads.
Relations between the two countries have been strained for more than two decades, since the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic Armenian region, first erupted in 1988. The region then claimed independence from Azerbaijan and has since remained de facto independent.
A ceasefire agreement was reached in 1994, but despite decades of negotiations the two states have still not signed a peace deal and Baku maintains the area is its sovereign territory.
