ARMENIAN PRESIDENT VISITS FRANCE, TO MEET JACQUES CHIRAC

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
February 17, 2007 Saturday 07:15 PM EST

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan began his official visit to
France on Saturday with visiting a charitable concert by singer
Charles Aznavour. It is being held in the 19th century building of
Opera Garnier as part of the Year of Armenian Culture in France.

Aznavour opened the festival by a concert in Yerevan last September.

Aznavour and his fellow-musicians gave the concert with an aim to
raise funds to finance "Thousands of Armenia’s Children" program.

Under the project, hundreds of teenagers from Armenia will be
accommodated in French families so as to learn French in France. The
program is supported by the French Ministry of Education, the Senate
and the French National Assembly.

President Kocharyan will meet his French counterpart Jacques Chirac
in Paris on Monday to discuss bilateral cooperation. The same day,
the heads of state will open the "Holy Armenia" exhibition in the
Louvre Museum. It will feature exhibits from the holy Armenian sites
of Echmiadzin and Matenadaran.

During his four-day visit Robert Kocharyan will also meet the French
prime minister and the speakers of the two chambers of the French
Parliament. The Armenian president plans to visit an exhibition of
the 19th-century painter Ivan Aivazovsky at the Paris Navy Museum as
well as an exhibition titled "The Twelve Capitals of Armenia". More
than 400,000 Armenians live in France. Robert Kocharyan will meet
representatives of the Armenian community.

The Armenian delegation will visit the town of Nice where the Square
of Armenia will be opened.