YEREVAN. – The 17th Summit of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) got underway Thursday with a huge round of applause in memory of the late Charles Aznavour, in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan.

Opening the summit, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan commenced his remarks in French, and he recalled this legendary French Armenian artist who passed away on October 1, aged 94.

“Being Armenia’s passionate defender, our country’s ambassador to international organizations, he has kept high the name of Armenia in the world, and we will be forever grateful to him for that,” Pashinyan said, in particular.

Also, the PM stressed that himself and the entire Armenian people are happy to host the 17th summit of the leaders of the La Francophonie countries and of their governments.

In Pashinyan’s words, it is a great honor for Armenia to be entrusted the OIF chairmanship and the holding of the summit of this organization.

The Premier added that Armenia unconditionally shares the OIF values, the most important of which, as per Nikol Pashinyan, are democracy and human rights.