“You enter here as a soldier, with your comrades, with your brothers in arms (…) Grateful France welcomes you.“ Eighty years to the day after his execution by German soldiers, resistance fighter Missak Manouchian entered the Pantheon on Wednesday February 21, alongside his wife Mélinée and 23 resistance fighters who were executed on the same day, in 1944. “When war breaks out, Missak Manouchian enlists. Drunk with freedom and intoxicated with courage, enraged to defend the country that gave him everything”, greeted the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, in a speech delivered at the end of the ceremony. “In occupied Paris, Missak Manouchian joined the Communist Resistance within the immigrant workforce, the ME. He wanted to be a poet, he became a shadow soldier.”
This tribute ceremony can be followed live on France 2, franceinfo canal 27 and franceinfo.fr, which are devoting a special edition to this event.
A procession punctuated by “artistic moments”. The pantheonization ceremony sees the coffins of Missak and Mélinée Manouchian brought up rue Soufflot, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, by soldiers of the Foreign Legion (“foreigners who chose to fight for France”, points to the Elysée). An ascent punctuated by three breaks “which correspond to the major chapters of [sa] life” : the Armenian genocide, his arrival in France and his commitments, then his involvement in the Resistance. At the end of the procession, the coffin of Missak Manouchian will be welcomed on the square of the Pantheon with “a representation of comrades” of the resistant. Finally, the coffin will enter the temple “and will be honored both by a number of artistic talents then the speech of the President of the Republic”before being taken to vault 13 of the Pantheon.
Honor resistance fighters of all nationalities. The Elysée underlines that Missak Manouchian, survivor of the Armenian genocide, died stateless, and that, among the 23 other fighters honored, there are for example Poles, Hungarians, Italians and Spaniards. “It will be an opportunity to remember that being French is not about origin, religion, first name, but about will”insists the Elysée.
The Armenian Prime Minister present. Nikol Pashinian is present for this ceremony, after being received by Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée, where the two leaders also discussed relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.