Agence France Presse — English
February 17, 2007 Saturday 5:01 PM GMT

Armenian President in France for ‘Year of Armenia’ gala soiree

Armenian President Robert Kocharian arrived here on Saturday for a
four-day visit kicking off with a fund-raising gala soiree as part of
France’s "Year of Armenia," the French foreign ministry said.

Eighty-two-year-old crooner Charles Aznavour, one of a 400,000-strong
Armenian diaspora living in France, will give a concert at the
evening ahead of the release of a new album on Monday.

Funds raised will go towards the week-long visit later this year of
hundreds of Armenian children learning French.

On Monday Kocharian was due to have a working lunch with French
President Jacques Chirac, who paid a state visit late last year
during which he called on Turkey to confront its past before joining
the European Union.

France has been at the forefront of efforts to persuade Turkey to
recognise as genocide the 1915 massacre of Armenians under the
Ottoman empire.

Last year the French lower house adopted a bill — which still
requires approval from the senate and the president — making it a
crime to deny that the genocide took place.

Turkey rejects the use of the term "genocide," saying that while some
300,000 Armenians died when the Ottoman Empire fell apart, at least
as many Turks also perished.

Commercial ties are also strong between Paris and Yerevan, with
France one of the biggest foreign investors in Armenia, foreign
ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said.