Armenian Citizen Among Victims of Nice Terrorist Attack

NICE (Combined Sources) — An Armenian national is reportedly among at least 84 people who were killed in Thursday night’s terror attack in Nice, France.

The young woman, an Armenian citizen named Arevik, 24, was the mother of two children, and she was participating in the Bastille Day celebrations together with her children, husband, and mother-in-law. The family lives in Nice.

Fr. Grigor Khachatourian, pastor of the Armenian church in Nice, for his part, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that there are three Armenians among the injured.

The Nice attack victims died after a man drove a truck at high speed into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day along the city’s famed Promenade des Anglais seafront. The driver opened fire on the crowd before being shot dead by French police.

French prosecutors launched a terrorism investigation into the attack that also left scores of other people injured.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attack on Friday morning before reporting that one of the victims is an Armenian citizen. “Details are being clarified,” it said in a statement. “The Armenian Consulate General is in touch with the victim’s relatives in order to provide necessary assistance.” The ministry declined to immediately identify the victim for what its spokesman, Tigran Balayan, called “ethical reasons.”

President Serzh Sarkisian said he is “deeply shocked” by the Nice attack in a letter of condolence sent to his French counterpart Francois Hollande.

“France became the target of barbaric actions for the second time in the last 18 months,” wrote Sarkisian. “They are a blow to not only France but also entire humankind.”