24/04/2010 in 17:20 AFP
Several thousand Armenians of France mobilized for the
gratitude(recognition) dLa Armenian community of France seized on
Saturday the ceremonies of remembrance of the massacres of 1915-1917
to boost(relaunch) its fight for the gratitude(recognition) of the
genocide by Turkey and vote in France of a law punishing the negation
of this genocide.
"The objective of this day, it is to collect itself(to take in
itself) in memory victims but also to remind to the Turkish state that
we wait that the genocide is recognized ", said to AFP Alexis
Govciyan, president of council of coordination of the Armenian
organizations of France ( CCAF).
The Armenians qualify as genocide the massacres and the deportations
which, between 1915 and 1917, made, according to them, more than one
and a half million deaths within their community.
Turkey recognizes that between 300.000 and 500.000 persons
died. According to Ankara, however, they were not victims of a
campaign(countryside) of extermination but the chaos of the last years
of the Ottoman Empire.
Representatives of monastic communities, among whom Monseigneur Norvan
Zakarian, primacy of the Armenian diocese of France, pronounced a
prayer and sheaves of flowers were put down(deposited) at feet of the
statue.
" It is a strong moment for us, to remember our relatives(parents),
our grandparents ", Arsène Kalaidjian, age 73 confided(entrusted) to
AFP. " My father, who survived but not his brother, was nine years old
when he left in the convoies of deportation ", he tells, with tears in
the eyes.
" Us, the second generation, us remained silent, it is the third
generation, our children, who have Become aware the drama and begun to
claim the gratitude(recognition) of the genocide " pursued(continued).
Come from Reims by train with a friend to attend the remembrances of
the day, Roman Khoudhaverdian, age 17, an Armenian flag on shoulders,
says himself " there to defend(forbid) (his) people ".
" We know that there were massacres by the Turks, that many persons
died and we want to show by our presence that that will not forget
itself ", adds Levon Hakobian Abdoulov, age 19, who accompanies
him(it).
At about 4:00 pm, the demonstrators left in the direction of
Champs-Elysées, where the flame on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
must be revived late in the afternoon, in presence in particular of
Charles Aznavour.
On Friday morning, representatives of the Armenian community had been
received to the Senate, where they demanded that this one examines the
private bill to penalize the negation of the genocide, always
unresolved since its vote in the National Assembly on October 12th,
2006. " I think that things are going to advance(move) ",
confided(entrusted) Alexis Govciyan, received on Friday by the
president of the group of friendship France-Armenia to the Senate,
Serge Lagauche (PS).
" We said to him(her) that we are very pressed(are very in a hurry)
because we are worried about acts and revisionist papers ", added
Alexis Govciyan, underlining that " when we deny the reality of a
genocide, we offend the victims of the war and we strike a blow at the
memory of their descendants ".
France, which recognized the Armenian genocide by a law promulgated on
January 29th, 2001, accommodates the strongest Armenian community of
Western Europe with more than 500.000 persons, essentially in Paris
region, in Lyon and Marseille
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
