22.05.2024


Charles Aznavour, a well-known singer, songwriter, poet, author, film actor and public figure, would have been 100 years old on May 22, 2024.

Charles Aznavour was born in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district of Paris on May 22, 1924. His parents, Michael (Misha) and Knar Aznavourian were both survivors of the Armenian Genocide and artists, Knar being an actress, while Misha was a singer. They first met in Constantinople, where Misha was performing and Knar was writing cultural articles for an Armenian newspaper.

Aznavour's father Misha was originally from Erzerum, and his mother, Knar Baghdasarian, was born in Smyrna (Izmir) to a family of Armenian merchants. During the Armenian Genocide, Knar's entire family was killed, including her father, mother, sister, and two brothers. Knar was saved because she had moved to live with her grandmother and study in Constantinople. Misha, who had a Russian passport, managed to emigrate with his family to Greece by ship, where their daughter Aida was born in 1923. The family later moved to France, where Charles Aznavour was born.

The Aznavourians, during the Second World War, hid Jews and Armenians in their apartment in Paris, including the poet and French resistance movement member Missak Manouchian and his wife Mélinée.

In 1941, Charles met Pierre Roche, a pianist, composer, and director of the "Music-Hall" school. They became friends and Charles finally chose a musical career. In 1955, he performed for the first time at the Olympia in Paris. "France is now Aznavourified," the French press wrote.

"You will conquer the world because you can move people," Charles de Gaulle said about Aznavour.

The renowned singer Charles Aznavour appeared in numerous films, including "Head Against the Wall" (1958), "Shoot the Piano Player" (1960), "The Devil and the Ten Commandments" (1962) etc. He played the lead role in Atom Egoyan's film "Ararat" in 2002, which told the story of an exiled Armenian family and addressed the challenges of preserving collective memory in the face of denialism. The film includes the following words from Charles Aznavour's character: " I wanted to film our history our suffering all my life. Now we're making this film."

Aznavour also authored 14 books that have been translated into many languages and achieved bestseller status.

He was also actively involved in raising awareness about the Armenian Genocide and sharing his parents' survival story. He was appointed Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Armenia to UNESCO in 1995.

Charles Aznavour died on October 1, 2018, at the age of 94. A state funeral was held at the "Hôtel des Invalides" military complex in Paris to honour him on October 5 of that year. French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a eulogy during the funeral in which he said, "Charles Aznavour enlivened us with his songs. The son of an immigrant of Armenian origin, he was like a state within a state, a homeland within a homeland."