Yerevan /Mediamax/. Twelve years ago, on 12 June 2000, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan left for Damascus to take part in the funeral ceremony of President of Syria Hafez Assad.

In a telegram of condolences addressed to Syrian President’s successor- Bashar Assad, Armenian President noted that “with the death of Hafez Assad Syria and the whole Arab people have lost one of the biggest political figures, who has greatly contributed to the creation of modern history of the Arab world.”

Official Yerevan established contacts with Bashar Assad while his father was still alive. On 1 June 2000, Armenian Ambassador to Syria, the brother of incumbent Armenian President Levon Sargsyan met with the Chairman of Information Council of Syria Bashar Assad, who 10 days later was officially appointed the successor of Hafez Assad by the rulinf Baas Party.

In an interview to Mediamax in June 2000, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Nikolay Hovhannisyan, said that he had twice met with Hafez Assad, who expressed gratitude to Armenians for the contribution to the development of the Syrian statehood. Hovhannisyan said then that Hafez Assad secured a permanent seat for an Armenian MP in the Syrian parliament and provided conditions for decent functioning of Armenian educational institutions.

Speaking about Bashar Assad, the Armenian scientist noted that elder Assad staked on his brother Rifat but later considered his elder son as his successor. However, the two brothers had had serious disagreements, Hafez Assad’s elder son died in an accident and so his choice fell on Bashar.

“Bashar Assad should properly orientate himself, establish contacts with the Sunni community, national minorities and countries of the region. Only in that case Bashar would be able to take his father’s place,” Nikolay Hovhannisyan said in June 2000.

In August 2001, Minister of Defense, incumbent President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan paid a visit to Syria and signed an agreement on military cooperation. The Russian “Vremya Novostey” [Time of News] paper wrote then that the “Syrian-Armenian military summit goes beyond the limits of bilateral relations and turns into a factor of regional policy.”

“Turkey’s support to Azerbaijan increases the level of cooperation between the rivals of these two Turkic states- Iran, Armenia and Syria. The close military-strategic Israeli-Turkish cooperation and the possible intensification of Israeli-Azeri relations inevitably pushes Armenia and Arab countries, which are also worried by the rapprochement of Tel-Aviv and Ankara, closer to each other,” the paper wrote then.

Nevertheless, the Armenian-Syrian military cooperation has not turned into something perceptible and the parties never returned to that issue.

In April 2006, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan met with the President of Syria Bashar Assad in Damascus. In December 2006, Charge d'Affaires of Syria in Yerevan Muhlis Pharaun described his country as “Armenia’s Arab brother in the region.” Commenting on the presence of Armenian peacekeepers in Iraq, the Syrian official said: “As an Arab I am against the interference of Armenia in military operations in Iraq, but as a diplomat I understand perfectly well why Armenia is there now.”

On 17 June 2009, Syrian President Bashar Assad came on an official visit to Yerevan. Ironically, addressing a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart, Bashar Assad spoke of Syria’s readiness to facilitate progress in the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, taking into consideration good relations between Damascus and both parties. After the beginning of tensions in Syria, Turkey was one of the first countries to turn its back on Bashar Assad.

Serzh Sargsyan described as “historical” the visit of Syrian President to Armenia and highlighted the fact that in early XX century the Syrian people lent a helping hand to many thousands of Armenians who survived the Genocide. “Syria is the second motherland for Armenians,” Serzh Sargsyan quoted Hafez Assad, who visited Armenia 30 years ago, as saying.