On March 31, the delegation led by the President of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Region of France, Laurent Vauquier, visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial, accompanied by the RA Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan and RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France Hasmik Tolmajyan.
Harutyun Marutyan, director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, welcomed the guests and presented the history of the creation of the memorial complex. He also referred to the three khachkars erected in the Tsitsernakaberd area in memory of the Armenians who died in the massacres organized by the Azerbaijani government in the cities of Sumgait, Kirovabad (Gandzak), Baku at the end of the last century, and the stories of the five freedom fighters buried in front of Hushapat during the Artsakh war, stressing the connection between what happened and the Armenian Genocide. :
The delegation members from France laid flowers on the khachkars and graves, paying their respects to the memory of the victims of the anti-Armenian policy implemented by the Azerbaijani authorities. Mr. Laurent Vauquier laid a wreath at the monument commemorating the victims of the Armenian Genocide; then, the guests placed flowers near the eternal fire. They observed a minute of silence in memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide.
Laurent Fauquier stressed that the warm Armenian-French relations have a history of centuries and that France should do everything to prevent another genocide against the Armenians. Harutyun Marutyan, director of the AGM, for his part, thanked Vokye for being on Armenia’s side and noted that in 2020 “Devastated Armenia” was published with the support of the head of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region of France. The cooperation that started with the French edition of the book “The story of Aurora Mardiganyan” will be continuous, and shortly, they will implement new joint projects. Expressing his gratitude for the visit, the director of the AGM, Harutyun Marutyan, presented Mr. Vokye with publications of the AGM as well.
At the end of the visit, the French delegation was also in the Park of Remembrance, where Laurent Fauquier watered the silver fir he planted in 2019.
