Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian represented Armenia on Sunday in a huge demonstration in downtown Paris that honored the victims of deadly terrorist attacks carried out there by radical Islamists.
More than 1 million people and 40 world leaders participated in the solidarity march led by French President Francois Hollande. The rally, which the French Interior Ministry said was the largest in the country’s history, paid tribute to the 17 victims of the attacks against the satirical weekly “Charlie Hebdo,” a French police woman, and a Jewish supermarket.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Nalbandian reiterated Yerevan’s strong condemnation of the attacks in a short conversation with Hollande that preceded the procession. He also conveyed “the Armenian people’s solidarity with the people and government of friendly France,” a ministry statement said.
President Serzh Sarkisian sent a letter of condolences to Hollande last Wednesday just hours after two gunmen burst into the “Charlie Hebdo” offices and sprayed it with bullets. Nalbandian, for his part, condemned the “appalling” killings in a special statement.