YEREVAN (AFP) –Charles Aznavour, uncontested star of French song, has been appointed ambassador to Switzerland for his ancestral homeland Armenia, the Armenian presidency said Wednesday.
President Serzh Sarkisian appointed Aznavour ambassador to Switzerland and Armenia’s permanent delegate to the United Nations office in Geneva, the presidency said in a brief statement.
Aznavour only received Armenian citizenship last December.
He told Armenian television in February that he had accepted an offer to become the country’s ambassador to Switzerland “with pleasure and joy”.
“At first I had doubts… but then I thought that what is important for Armenia should be important for us all,” he said at the time.
Born Shahnur Aznavourian in Paris to Armenian parents, the 84-year-old singer has maintained close links with Armenia and is among the best-known figures of France’s 400,000-strong Armenian Diaspora.
After the 1988 earthquake in Armenia that killed 25,000 people, Aznavour set up a foundation and organised a series of charity concerts to help quake victims.
Aznavour is the first French performer to have a recording that went platinum in Europe. He has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
God bless our Charles Aznavour. This proud Armenian has done more good for the Armenians, than all the three corrupt Armenian administrations since 1990. Hope he lives to be 1,000 years old.
Dear Compatriots
On the 20th July 2009 – a day before 81 – is the Birthday of our famos painter Minas Avetisian. My friend Pierre-Dominique Ponnelle is a very well known composer & conductor (was a student of Herbert von Karajan) will give a concert to honor his most favorite painter Minas Avetisian. Pierre-Dominique creates a cultural bridge between orient and occident, let say it in our definition between Diaspora and Hayastan. We should be active in promoting our arts & culture, Armenians and our Homeland has more to tell to the World as only Genocide!
The Diaspora has to create a demand for Armenian arts & culture in the West, so that the Armenian Government has to be serious with our Heritage!
Please contact me for further details, I need your support from the USA. My email: ohannes@bluewin.ch
Best regards from Switzerland
Ohannes