Jean Eckian

PARIS - On May 19, Artsakh President Bako Sahakyan laid a wreath of flowers in memory of the victms of the Armenian Genocide at the foot of the Komitas statue in Paris’ Yerevan Park.

President Sahakyan, accompanied on his official visit to France by Artsakh Foreign Minister Karen Mirzoyan, was welcomed to Paris by the co-chairs of CCAF, Ara Toranian and Mourad Papazian. Also in attendance were Ambassador of Armenia to France Vigen Chitechian, the representative of Artskah to France Hovhannes Gevorgyan, and representatives of the Armenian community in France.

On the same day, President Sahakyan also signed a Charter of Friendship with Mayor François Pupponi of Sarcelles (a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris) thus linking the French community and Martakert.  

Sahakyan, along with Ambassador Vigen Chitechian, also attended a ceremony to mark the Armenian and Assyrian-Chaldean genocide centennial in Sarcelles which has the largest concentration of Assyrians in France.

On May 18, Sahakyan signed a bilateral cooperation agreement and friendship charter with Drôme, a French department in the southeast of the country. The Artsakh president was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Drôme.

Drôme Deputy Patrick Labaune praised the spirit of resistance of Artsakh. "You are resisting as General de Gaulle in 1940. Those who refuse to recognize you are in error. With this charter Drôme takes the path of history.”

Photo: Jean Eckian