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Agence France Presse -- English
September 29, 2006 Friday
Chirac arrives on state visit to Armenia
French President Jacques Chirac arrived in Yerevan on Friday for a
two-day state visit, the first trip by a sitting French leader to the
Caucasus nation, an AFP journalist at the airport said.
Chirac, who arrived from a summit of Francophone nations in
Bucharest, was met at the airport by his Armenian counterpart Robert
Kocharian before being whisked to a banquet in the city.
The French leader is accompanied by his wife Bernadette and on
Saturday is expected to lay flowers at Armenia's Tsitsernakaberd
memorial, which commemorates massacres of Armenians at the hands of
Ottoman Turks during World War I.
France, which has 400,000 citizens of Armenian descent, officially
recognized those events as genocide in 2001, putting a strain on its
relations with European Union aspirant and NATO member Turkey.
Chirac and his delegation are scheduled to attend a concert by
ethnic-Armenian French singer Charles Aznavour on Saturday evening,
before returning to France.
September 29, 2006 Friday
Chirac arrives on state visit to Armenia
French President Jacques Chirac arrived in Yerevan on Friday for a
two-day state visit, the first trip by a sitting French leader to the
Caucasus nation, an AFP journalist at the airport said.
Chirac, who arrived from a summit of Francophone nations in
Bucharest, was met at the airport by his Armenian counterpart Robert
Kocharian before being whisked to a banquet in the city.
The French leader is accompanied by his wife Bernadette and on
Saturday is expected to lay flowers at Armenia's Tsitsernakaberd
memorial, which commemorates massacres of Armenians at the hands of
Ottoman Turks during World War I.
France, which has 400,000 citizens of Armenian descent, officially
recognized those events as genocide in 2001, putting a strain on its
relations with European Union aspirant and NATO member Turkey.
Chirac and his delegation are scheduled to attend a concert by
ethnic-Armenian French singer Charles Aznavour on Saturday evening,
before returning to France.