EVENT DEDICATED TO MEMORY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE HELD IN PARIS MAYOR’S OFFICE

Noyan Tapan
April 25, 2008

PARIS, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 24, RA Minister of Foreign
Affairs Eduard Nalbandian, who was in France on a working visit,
visited Paris Mayor’s Office and made a speech at the reception in
memory of the Armenian Genocide organized by the Mayor’s Office. State,
political, and public officials of France, leaders of Armenian,
Jewish, and Islamic organizations of France, intellectuals, nearly
one thousand French Armenians were present at the reception.

Thanking Mayor Bertrand Delanoe on the occasion of this civil event
which has already become a tradition, E. Nalbandian highly appreciated
wisdom and political courage of the post-war European leaders to
reconcile the peoples of Europe paralysed from wars and hatred for
the sake of peace and solidary future.

"The symbolic characters of Francois Mitterand and Helmut Kohl revive
in our memories, who hand in hand bend their heads in front of the
graves of French and German soldiers who have fallen victims to three
fatal wars from 1870 to 1945. Like their great predecessors General
Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Adenauer, they gained the benefit of
their peoples and entered the mankind’s history forever," said the RA
Minister of Foreign Affairs, adding."I hope that one day the Armenian
and Turkish leaders will together bend their heads in front of the
symbol in memory of the Armenian Genocide and our peoples together
will build a secure future free of the heavy burden of the past "

In his speech, B. Delanoe said that meeting E. Nalbandian’s suggestion,
the park near the monument to Komitas which is in the center of Paris
will be named Yerevan park.

According to the information provided to Noyan Tapan by the Press and
Information Department of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the same
day in the morning a tete-a-tete talk of E. Nalbandian and B. Delanoe
was held during which the interlocutors exchanged thoughts concerning
the deepening of the Armenian-French discentralized cooperation,
as well as possibilities of implementing a number of programs within
the framework of partnership between Paris and Yerevan.