One of the recent publications of the French “JDE” (“Paper for children”, 12 pages) pictured weekly was issued on the topic of “Armenia – my friend”. The mentioned publication was totally dedicated to Armenia. “The Armenian year in France is a very good opportunity to have closer relations with Armenia, which history and culture are too rich”, writes the first page of the paper.
The paper writes general information about Armenia, Yerevan, Ararat biblical mountain, Sevan, etc. The most interesting information in the paper concerns Karabakh. “It was a territory that was in Azerbaijan and populated mostly by Armenians. It served a reason for war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1991-1994. Armenia won the war and captured ¼ of the Azeri territory”.
The paper dedicated separate pages to publications about Charles Aznavur, the Armenian Genocide, the Ararat mountain, French language in Armenia and community-level cooperation between France and Armenia.
The paper wrote as well as about world famous Armenians. Soccer player Yuri Jorkaeff, Alen Poghosyan and Michaelle Ter-Zakaryan are Armenians. By the way, the latter was born in Yerevan and removed to Marseille when he was 2 years old. Viktoria Kalachyan’s grandchild, champion of “Formula-1” Alen Prost thinks that Turkey can’t be integrated in the EU as far as they haven’t recognized the issue of the Armenian Genocide.
The father of tennis player Andre Aghasi represented the Iranian team of boxers before migrating to the U.S. from Armenia. The mother of Garri Kasparov, film producer Rober Gedikyan’s father, the grandfather of American artist Gregory Pec, the father of TV star Mike Chonors were Armenians too. Film producer Anri Vernauil (Ashot Malakyan), painter Jacque Gurzu (Garnik Zulumyan), writer William Saroyan, singer Silvi Vardan and composer Aram Khachatryan were born in Armenian families.
“Notre-Dame de Paris” brought fame for two more Armenians: Helen Segara and Patrick Fiori. Fiori’s father is Armenian and together with Jorkaeff and Poghosyan he supports “Provanse-Armeni” organization. The paper writes the names of famous jazzman Andre Manoukian, singer Cher and composer Michelle Legran as well.
The paper writes that former prime minister of France, Mr. Baladur was born in Izmir city of Turkey and may have Armenian origin too since his family escaped from Nakhidjevan. Among the famous politicians that have Armenian origin the paper writes as well as the names of Patrick Devejyan, an advisor to Nikola Sarkozi, and the existing president of Lebanon, Emil Lahud. By the way, the latter’s wife is Armenian too.
The parents of the president of Alcatel company, Serj Curuk (Serj Churukdichyan) escaped from Turkey in 1920s to Marseille. The mode company of Alen Manoukian has a large network of mode saloons. Also, Daniel Bilalyan, a reporter of France-2 TV company has Armenian origin.
It turns out that everyone may have Armenian origin, even the members of the British Royal family. Princess Diana, who died on August 31, 1997, had a character that looked very like an Armenian woman’s character. The reason is the fact that her origin was connected with Armenia too. “The grand grandmother of Lady Diana, Eliza Kevark, was Armenian and lived in Armenia”, informs the “JDE”.