“Your indifference has a price. » A drop of red blood was drawn on the sign that Chakéuari brandished high, under the shade of the Old Port of Marseille. But it was another liquid, salty, which ran down the young woman’s cheeks a few days ago. The same liquid that pushes her outside on this abnormally hot Sunday in October, wrapped in the Armenian colors of her ancestors. In France’s second city, the Armenian community is generally estimated at around 80,000 people, arriving particularly in the 1920s after the massacres and deportations by the troops of the Ottoman Empire.
Under her sign, the young woman hides her eyes behind her sunglasses, but the emotion is palpable. “When I saw what was happening, when I saw the dissolution, I was on the bus, and I started to cry,” she confides. This is a part of our country that will cease to exist, and we have the impression of being powerless. »
“A cry of fed up”
Around her, between 1,000 according to the police and 5,000 people crowd under the shade, as part of a large mobilization of the Armenian community in France and in Europe, particularly in Brussels, seat of the institutions of the European Union . “We are all concerned, because these Armenians are our compatriots,” Veronica is alarmed. I have lived in France for eleven years and I am very worried. I am from a town near Nagorno-Karabakh and have relatives living there. They are exiled today, on the roads. »
Fifteen days after Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive pushing thousands of people to exodus, the tears of astonishment of the first days are now coupled with an anger that is no longer intended to be dull. On the contrary, it is about raising a cry of distress in the face of action by the international community that the Armenian diaspora, coming from the Phoenician city, but also from Avignon and even Toulouse, considers insufficient. “It’s a cry of fed-up, an SOS,” storms Julien Harounyan, president of the coordinating council of Armenian associations of France for the south of the country. 120,000 people are being allowed to die and it really disgusts me to see the great powers letting this happen. Today, we are entering into resistance, because not to fight is to resign ourselves and to condone. » “What is happening is ethnic cleansing,” claims Denise. This is the first genocide of the 21st century and no one is talking about it. I am angry at the indifference of the European Union. »
“The whole of Armenia risks disappearing”
“The Ministry of Finance must now and without delay block the assets of Aliyev (the Armenian president, editor’s note), his brothers, his sisters, his children, their allies, their government, demands on the stage the mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan, inaugurating a long series of speeches by local elected officials who came to support the Armenians. In Paris, we must block the assets of Erdogan, his friends, his allies. »And to also call for the sending of “blue helmets” on site. In a column published Sunday on the website of the newspaper Le Monde, mayors of large French cities and other elected officials ask “France and the European Union (to) take strong actions in favor of the protection of populations and the peace process”.
“The whole of Armenia is in danger of disappearing,” fears Gayané. This time, either the politicians get off their ass or we’re screwed. They help Ukraine, they can also help us, right? » La Marseillaise points to her neighbor. “I have been demonstrating for Armenia for 47 years, since I was here, in my mother’s womb. And it’s always the same events for our country. There were demonstrations for the recognition of the genocide, against the war in 2020. And we are here today. And after ? What’s going to happen ? » At his side, his mother Virginie sighs: “Defending Armenia is a never-ending fight. »