YEREVAN — Charles Aznavour’s house-museum was opened in downtown Yerevan today, in a solemn ceremony attended by the legendary singer, his son Nicolas Aznavour, Armenia’s President Serzh Sarkisian and a number of guests. Minister of Culture Armen Amiryan handed the symbolic keys to Charles Aznavour.
The ceremony also marked the launching of the Aznavour Foundation that will aim to preserve the maestro’s cultural legacy. It will also work out and implement educational and social programs.
President Sarkisian handed over the symbolic key to Charles Aznavour. “The presence of Museum brings an honor to our whole society. Yerevan is rich of beautiful historical-cultural places, cultural centers, but this House-Museum enriches Yerevan, gives new impetus to our cultural life. Maestro, we are happy that we are your contemporaries, that we can regularly enjoy your art. Today Aznavour is a legend, a walking legend, and he belongs not only to France, Armenia, but also to all humanity”, the President said.
He stated that the Armenian-French relations are linked with thousands of ties, and one of the vivid proofs of this is that the last three Presidents of France – Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, visited Armenia.
“I hope the newly-elected President Mr. Emmanuel Macron will continue this tradition, and we together with you will welcome him in this House-Museum. Maestro, I wish you health, long life so that you will manage to enjoy your art. I am very thankful that you agreed to have House-Museum in Yerevan. It’s an honor for us”, Serzh Sargsyan said.
In his turn Charles Aznavour said it is a great honor for him today to be in Yerevan and receive the keys of the House-Museum.
“Thank you for your generous donation. I made this decision with great confidence and together with my son established ‘Aznavour Fund’ which must continue my charitable activity launched since 1988. The first programs of the Fund will be the establishment of a museum which is going to be both an interactive multimedia museum and youth center, an important tourism place. I made this decision with great confidence since I saw how educational, historical-cultural programs are being implemented in Armenia over the past years”, the renowned singer said.
According to him, Armenians of Armenia and Diaspora must unite their efforts to create such programs which will enable the Armenian youth to fulfill their dreams in Armenia surrounded by their relatives.
“I express my deepest gratitude to President of Armenia Serzh Sarkisian, the Ministry of Culture, all people for the support, the IDeA Foundation, personally the co-founder Ruben Vardanyan who invested all efforts to implement this project. Yes, the name Charles Aznavour is well-known in the world, however, the entire culture that name includes must also come to Armenia. While in Armenia I follow on TV that we have no regress, we are quite ahead in terms of colors and presented programs”, he said.
