It’s a pleasure for me to visit Paris again, a city “which faced a lot of waves during history but never sank” and continued prospering and developing, eternally remaining a unique center of civilization, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said at the reception held in the Municipality of Paris on Wednesday.

Addressing the Paris city authorities and particularly Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo,  Sargsyan noted: “It is thanks to you that decentralized cooperation, especially the one with Paris, has such an important place on the agenda of the Armenian-French relations. I highly appreciate that you are by our side at the most important moments for us: I mean your visit to Yerevan both in the framework of the events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and the festivities dedicated to the 2798th anniversary of the city of Yerevan. And, of course, Ms Mayor, we will be happy if you visit Yerevan on these days next year, when we will be celebrating the 2800th anniversary of the Armenian capital.”

Furthermore, the Armenian leader expressed satisfaction with the fact that Yerevan and Paris are sister cities, the productive cooperation between them strengthening and expanding every day. “Every year a number of joint programs are implemented both in bilateral and multilateral formats, starting from cultural programs to exchange of experience in the spheres of city economy and urban development,” he noted.  

“I would like to especially touch on our collaboration within the framework of the International Association of Francophone Mayors. Thanks to that cooperation, a number of schools in our capital have created conditions for advanced learning of French. Besides, art educational centers and libraries have been mproved and renovated. The city with the greatest number of libraries in the world should be exemplary for us. Thanks to that collaboration, the French breath has become more noticeable in our capital. I hope that the ongoing programs will also be successfully materialized. “Armenian house” and “French house” will be established in France and Armenia respectively, this making Armenians and the French feel at home in each other’s capitals.

Being in Paris, you realize why dozens of thousands of Armenians preferred France and the French after the Armenian Genocide. Trade is also an art here, the latter being a lifestyle.

These people came here and thanks to your hospitality turned into law abiding citizens, respected and demanded specialists. They also came here for the world to listen to the sweet French songs of Charles Aznavour, enjoy the beautiful music of Henri Verneuil and the films of Alain Terzian.

Let me specially address my compatriots in this hall.

It can be confidently said that you have your input in the French culture and development of economy. Taking the best of the French, you enriched it with a unique raciness of Armenianness. 

Now that thousands of Syrian Armenians have established in Armenia as a result of the crisis, we feel that raciness closer and appreciate it,” Sargsyan noted.