PARIS — As if in accordance with the above quote from a Charles Aznavour song, “La Mamma,” on Wednesday June 28, 1,500 people flocked to the prestigious Salle Gaveau in Paris to support Artsakh at the call of Armenia’s ambassador to France, Hasmik Tolmajian.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s representative in France, Hovannes Guevorkian, opened this special evening which was a strong message of solidarity from France.
More than twenty intellectuals and artists answered the embassy’s urgent call to raise public awareness of the plight of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. Leading voices from the worlds of journalism, literature, cinema and the arts were mobilized to speak out on behalf of those who live in anguish today, with moving letters presented from our compatriots under the blockade of Azerbaijan.
High-profile French personalities included writer Sylvain Tesson, Figaro Magazine journalist Jean-Christophe Buisson, filmmaker Robert Guédiguian, actress Ariane Ascaride, writer-filmmaker Olivier Weber and actor Pascal Légitimus.
Denouncing the 200-day blockade suffered by the inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh, Sylvain Tesson spoke out against the wait-and-see attitude of the French presidency, saying: “Today, Artsakh is the outpost of a dungeon called Armenia, and Armenia is the outpost of another dungeon to be conquered, namely Europe. It’s time to take stock of this reality, without hiding behind the pretext of waiting for “the right moment to intervene.”
As for the prestigious filmmaker Robert Guediguian, for him, history is repeating itself. He read the famous speech by the great French writer Anatole France on April 9, 1916 at the Sorbonne: “Armenia expires, but it will be reborn!”
