TOURINFO- On November 20, 2020, Le Figaro magazine published an appeal signed by more than 100 Leading French filmmakers, writers, thinkers, actors, musicians, philosophers, journalists, and singers in support of Armenia and Artsakh.
There are some impressive names in the list: actors Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Jean Reno, Fanny Ardant, Danny Boon, Juliette Binoche, Pierre Richard, Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin, and intellectuals Jacques Attali, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Michel Hazanavicius.
English Text:
More than a century after the commission of the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman rulers of 1915, the Armenian people are again victims of two authoritarian regimes as both Baku and Ankara incite hatred against Armenians to consolidate their absolute power with a new bloody trophy.
The fate of the Armenians has just been brutally damaged in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region they call Artsakh. A humble and proud people, they have lived there for more than two millennia, firmly attached to their rocky and magnificent land. They wanted to continue their existence where, amidst impregnable mountains and valleys cultivated by bitter sweat, their ancestors lived, built houses, schools, and magnificent monasteries. Without any human consideration, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey and Ilham Aliyev’s Azerbaijan have strived to destroy this legitimate aspiration.
For Armenians, Nagorno Karabakh is first and foremost a people with its centuries-old culture, music, and dance, which wants to join the world and get rid of the enclave status imposed on it.
For the authorities in Baku and Ankara, it is above all a territory; on which the flag of Azerbaijan must fly at all costs, be it by receiving the support of Turkish special forces, by sending volleys of kamikaze drones to crush civilian targets, or by resorting to jihadist mercenaries paid to kill. There is now evidence that Azerbaijan used cluster munitions prohibited by international law. The fight was totally unequal.
The Armenians did not want this war, but they were forced to fight for their survival. For the Azerbaijani dictatorship, it is only a matter of national pride. The leader of Azerbaijan was clear in his intentions when he said in the early days of the conflict: “We will drive them out like dogs.” He repeated this same sentence after the exodus of civilians he caused in Artsakh, declaring himself proud to have kept this horrible promise.
In the twenty-first century, such a loathing of human beings, such an outpouring of hatred, arouses the deepest indignation that can find no place in the modern world.
That’s why: #jesupportlarmenia, #jessupportslartsakh
Appeal signatories:
Simon Abkarian, Bruno Abraham-Kremer, Alain Altinoglu, Karine Arabian, Fanny Ardant, Ariane Ascaride, Yvan Attal, Jacques Attali, Serge Avédikian, Nicolas Aznavour, Georges Bensoussan, François Berléand, Stéphane Bern, Daniel Bilalian, Juliette Binoche, Dany Boon, Guillaume Bourgogne, Hamit Bozarslan, Stéphane Breton, Dany Brillant, Pascal Bruckner, Jean-Christophe Buisson, Claudia Cardinale, Virginie Carton, Gérard Chaliand, Françoise Chandernagor, Jean-Luc Choplin, Grégoire Colin, Jean-François Colosimo, Costa-Gavras, Boris Cyrulnik, Audrey Dana, Xavier Darcos, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Anahit Dasseux Ter-Mesropian, Didier Decoin, Marina Dédéyan, Arnaud Delalande, Alain Delon, Olivier Delorme, François-Xavier Demaison, Anaïs Demoustier, Éric Denécé, Négar Djavadi, Karim Dridi, Michel Drucker, Alain Duault, Alain Ducasse, Jean Dujardin, Vincent Duclert, Atom Egoyan, Frédéric Encel, Sophie Fontanel, Caroline Fourest, Thierry Frémont, Laurent Gaudé, Yves de Gaulle, Laurent Gerra, Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Isabelle Giordano, Thierry Godard, Robert Guédiguian, David Haroutunian, Roland Hayrabedian, Michel Hazanavicius, Laurent Herbiet, Patrick Hernandez, Nancy Huston, Alexandre Jardin, Pierre Judet de La Combe, Michèle Kahn, Nelly Kaprièlian, Robert Kéchichian, Arsinée Khandjian, Elie Kleiman, Richard Labévière, Alexandra Lapierre, Camille Laurens, Pascal Légitimus, Gilles Lellouche, Claude Lelouch, Jean-Jacques Lemêtre, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Olivier Loustau, Mathieu Madénian, Benoît Magimel, Jean-Pierre Mahé, Christian Makarian, Vardan Mamikonian, Bruno Mantovani, Michel Marian, Gérard Meylan, Jacques-Alain Miller, Frédéric Mitterrand, Olivier Mongin, Eric Morain, Thibault de Montaigu, Vahram Muratyan, Lola Naymark, Jessica Nelson, Jacky Nercessian, Véronique Olmi, Michel Onfray, Erik Orsenna, Frédéric-Jacques Ossang, Benjamin Penamaria, Raphaël Personnaz, Michel Petrossian, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, Gérard Pullicino, Michel Quint, Christophe Rauck, Jean Reno, Pierre Richard, Henri Roanne-Rosenblatt, Muriel Robin, Alexandre Romanès, Tatiana de Rosnay, Jean-Marie Rouart, Gérard Saillant, Boualem Sansal, Lévon Sayan, Jean Sévillia, Gilbert Sinoué, Astrid Siranossian, Zinedine Soualem, Nicolas Steil, Robinson Stévenin, Pierre-André Taguieff, Bertrand Tavernier, Yves Ternon, Alain Terzian, Sylvain Tesson, Marc Tigrane, Ara Toranian, Valérie Toranian, Rosalba Torres, Philippe Torreton, Thierry Vendome, Marie Vermillard, Marin de Viry, Charles Villeneuve, Philippe Welsh, Ysmahane Yaqini, Tigrane Yégavian, Benoît Yvert, Corinne Zarzavadjian, Pierre Ziadé.
