Speech on April 24, 2023 Bron – France
Mr. Jérémie Bréaud, Mayor of Bron, Regional Councillor, and representing Mr. Laurent Wauquiez, President of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region
Mrs. Martine Chareyre representing Mr. Alexandre Vincendet, Deputy of the Rhône,
Mr. Stéphane Genin, City Council delegated to veterans and the duty of remembrance,
Mr. Georges Delbrel, President of the Liaison Committee of the Associations of Veterans and Resistance Fighters of Bron
Ladies and Gentlemen of the French Republic,
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Republic of Western Armenia,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Veterans and officials of the constituted bodies
civil and military security,
Ladies and Gentlemen in charge of associations,
Ladies and Gentlemen, flag bearers,
Dear compatriots and friends,
I would like first of all to thank you and to thank in particular the Mayor of Bron, Jérémie Bréaud, who with dignity organizes every year this ceremony of commemoration in Bron in memory of the two million victims of the Armenian genocide which began, as the President of the Region Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Mr. Laurent Wauquiez recently recalled, in the provinces of Western Armenia.
This memory is all the more topical since the program of annihilation of the Armenian nation, which began in 1894 and spread over a period of 30 years until 1923 in its culminating phase, has never ceased and continues in successive phases.
Thus, plans were made for the execution of the Armenian population on the indigenous territory of the Armenians.
In 2020, the war of aggression waged by the Turkish-Azeri armed forces against the Armenian population in Artsakh resulted in 5,000 dead and 10,000 disabled.
Today, we are witnessing incursions and invasions into the territory of the Republic of Eastern Armenia where the Turkish-Azeri military forces are now installed and control strategic areas of the territory.
We are also witnessing the strangulation of 120,000 Armenians of Artsakh who are surrounded and cannot use the access roads to the Republic of Eastern Armenia for their vital needs.
I want to salute here the courage of Mr. Laurent Wauquiez who went to the place and who courageously denounced the humanitarian situation in progress calling France and Europe to act.
I want to remind you that France, through the commitment of its illustrious personalities, of which Anatole France was the first, has always been on the side of the rights of the Armenians.
But we are in front of a deep incomprehension when Mr. Emmanuel Macron decided by the circular of June 24, 2018 to cancel the charters of friendship concluded between the French cities and the cities of Artsakh. The reason given claimed that “territorial authorities could not bind themselves in any form to foreign local authorities established in an institutional framework not recognized by France.”
However, France recognized the Armenia of 1920, of which we are the continuator state, which included Artsakh.
The annulment of these charters by the administrative court is extremely serious because this circular was in fact a signal sent to Azerbaijan giving a so-called legal green light without any basis for the launch of its war of aggression.
Today I want to tell the Mayors of France who opposed this circular that they were right to do so because national recognition and international law are on their side.
I want to salute the courage of Mr. Jean-Paul Bret who opposed to cancel the charter concluded in 2015 between the cities of Villeurbanne, of which he was the Mayor, and Chouchi, who by letter addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Le Drian stated that at all times, it was nevertheless friendship that, by bringing peoples together, had enabled France to wage great battles for human rights and to impose on the international scene its fight for freedom; and that the injunction made to the mayors – as well as to their municipal councils – and the referral to the courts broke with a tradition of subtle balances.”
After the Shushi massacres in 1920, Azerbaijan today continues its policy of ethnic cleansing of the Armenian populations of the Chahumian, Karvadjar, Kashatar, Khapan regions and plans to continue its crimes against humanity towards the Armenian populations of Synuik.
The barbarity of these criminal forces is now a reality at the gates of Europe. It is a reality not only because the Armenian genocide has not been redressed, but also because the criminal entities Turkey and Azerbaijan have never been brought to justice.
And let’s not forget, unremedied genocide continues over time.
“The remains of the sword” is the insolent and vulgar qualification used by Mr. Erdogan to designate the survivors and descendants of the survivors of the Armenian genocide, recognizing by this very terminology, not only and implicitly, the reality of the genocide but also the genocidal intention on the survivors.
We, the survivors, are determined not only to enforce all the rights of the Armenian nation, but also to bring about the truth and justice without which no peace will be possible.
I would like once again to thank the Mayor and all those involved in this ceremony for the work of remembrance of all those who have fallen for freedom and the right to exist.
Long live France, long live the French people!
Long live Western Armenia, long live Artsakh and long live the Armenian people!
I thank you.
Lydia Margossian
Vice-President of the National Association of Armenian Veterans and Resistance Fighters
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Western Armenia
