PARIS – On Saturday, May 22, the anniversary of the birth of the famous singer Charles Aznavour in 1924, a bust in his image, offered by the Aznavour Foundation, was inaugurated in Paris by the mayor of the French capital, Anne Hidalgo. The family of the artist, including Charles’s sister, Aïda Aznavour, 98 years old, and Nicolas, the younger son of Charles, was present along with Hasmik Tolmadjian, ambassador of Armenia in France.
The inauguration took place emotionally in the memory of the man with 1,200 songs, near Rue Monsieur Le Prince, where the singer lived as a child with his sister Aïda. On May 21, 2019, a plaque was inaugurated at No. 36 on the same street.
Many public figures from the Armenian community in France were present for this event covered by a swarm of journalists.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo, preceded by Nicolas Aznavour, paid a vibrant tribute to the artist. Nicolas indicated that another bust of Charles Aznavour was unveiled the same day in Stepanakert. In her speech, the mayor also called for “universal recognition of the Armenian genocide, a dark page in our history,” which the parents of Charles Aznavour had fled. She denounced “negationism, this propaganda which reappears, here and there, including on our territory [in France].”
The sculpture, made in 1964, is the work of artist Alice Mélikian. It had been given to Charles on his first trip to Armenia in 1964.
