The delegation led by Edouard Philippe, former Prime Minister of France and incumbent Mayor of Le Havre, and Member of the European Parliament, Ms. Natalie Loiseau, visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial, accompanied by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Armenia, Ms. Anne Louyot.
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 history of 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 in the last century, and the stories of the five freedom fighters buried in front of Hushapat (Memorial Wall) during the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) struggle.
Mr. Edouard Philippe laid a wreath at the monument commemorating the victims of the Armenian Genocide, then the guests placed flowers at the eternal fire and observed a moment of silence in memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide. Members of the delegation also toured the Armenian Genocide Museum, where they got acquainted with the permanent and temporary exhibitions and made notes in the memorial book of the honored guests.
Expressing his gratitude for the visit, the director of the Armenian Genocide, Harutyun Marutyan, presented books about the Armenian Genocide to the members of the delegation, including the “Ravaged Armenia” published in 2020 with the support of the head of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region of France. The book is the French edition of Aurora Mardiganyan’s story.
