31.03.2023


On March 31, the delegation led by the President of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Region of France, Laurent Wauquiez, visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial, accompanied by the RA Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan and RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France Hasmik Tolmajyan.

The guests were welcomed by AGMI Director Harutyun Marutyan, who narrated the history of the creation of the Memorial. He also presented the guests with the history of the three khachkars placed in the Tsitsernakaberd area in memory of the Armenians who died in the massacres in the cities of Sumgait, Kirovabad (Gandzak) and Baku in the last century organised by the Azerbaijani government, and the stories of the five freedom fighters buried in front of Hushapat during the Artsakh war, emphasizing the connection between what happened and the Armenian Genocide.

The members of the delegation from France laid flowers on the khachkars and graves, paying their respect to the memory of the victims of the anti-Armenian policy implemented by the Azerbaijani authorities.

Mr. Laurent Wauquiez laid a wreath at the genocide monument, after which the guests put flowers at the Eternal Fire and observed a minute’s silence in memory of the innocent martyrs of the Armenian Genocide.

Mr. Laurent Wauquiez emphasized that the warm Armenian-French relations have a history of centuries and that France should do everything to prevent another genocide against the Armenians. In his turn Harutyun Marutyun, the director of AGMI, thanked Mr. Wauquiez for being by Armenia’s side, and noted that the cooperation that began with the French edition of the book “Ravished Armenia: The Story of Aurora Mardiganyan” published in 2020 with the support of the head of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region of France will continue and in the near future they will implement joint new projects. Expressing his gratitude for the visit, AGMI director Harutyun Marutyan, also gifted Mr. Wauquiez some of AGMI publications.

At the end of the visit, the French delegation also visited the Memory Park, where Laurent Wauquiez watered the silver fir he has planted back in 2019.