The ceremony took place on Tuesday in the presence of Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot and other dignitaries. They did not include the two co-chairmen of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF). The primate of the Armenian Church diocese in France, Bishop Grigor Khachatrian, was also not invited to the ceremony.
According to French-Armenian news website armenews.com, the Armenian ambassador to France, Arman Khachatrian, refused to comment on the snub criticized by the CCAF.
“An embassy represents the Armenian state and, beyond that, the entire Armenian people in all their diversity,” read a statement released by the National Bureau of the umbrella structure uniting leading French-Armenian organizations. “It is the common home of a whole nation, the place where Armenia represents itself in its fullness, diversity and dignity beyond the disagreements of the moment and partisan calculations.”
“By choosing to deny access to recognized representatives of the Armenian diaspora in France, the Armenian government gives the impression of straying from this unifying purpose,” added the statement.
The CCAF was among Armenian Diaspora organizations and prominent individuals who deplored criminal charges brought against Catholicos Garegin II in February amid Pashinian’s controversial efforts to depose the supreme head of the church. It also voiced “full and unwavering support” for Garegin and demanded an immediate end to the Armenian government’s “repressions” against the church.
The CCAF is one of the most influential Diaspora bodies in the world. Its annual dinner meetings have been attended by top French officials and leaders of virtually all major French parties.
France’s Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Senate speaker Gerard Larcher addressed the most recent of those meetings held in January. Also, the CCAF co-chairmen, Ara Toranian and Mourad Papazian, have accompanied French President Emmanuel during official ceremonies in Paris to mark the anniversaries of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey.
A vocal critic of Pashinian, Papazian also leads the pan-Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party’s branch in France. He was controversially denied entry to Armenia in 2022. The Armenian government lifted the ban two years later following Macron’s reported intervention.