There are around 3,000 people of Armenian descent living in Romania. Modern relationships between Armenia and Romania are rooted in part in the modern history of the Armenian people: after the Armenian genocide of 1915, Romania was the first state to officially provide shelter and refugee camps to refugees from the area; and when in October 2007 the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, received the delegation headed by the Romanian Minister of National Defense, Teodor Meleșcanu, he noted that the Armenian-Romanian friendship was deeply rooted in history and it was not by accident that Romania was the first country to formally recognize the independence of Armenia from the USSR."[1]
