Charles Aznavour, death of a sacred monster of the French song

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Charles Aznavour during a concert at the Palais des Sports in Paris, in September 2015. RFI / Edmond Sadaka

The French singer and actor of Armenian origin Charles Aznavour died in the night from Sunday to Monday at the age of 94 years. Beyond a very prolific international artistic career, we also remember him as the militant of the cause of the Armenian people for the recognition and memory of the genocide of 1915. And if he carried the voice of the Armenian people around the world He was nonetheless an enlightened citizen with pertinent ideas about French society.

Aznavour is no more. Although he was an artist throughout his life, exploring musical styles and genres, he also lent his voice to those who were deprived of them. Starting with the Armenian people. Armenia, this small Eurasian state with rich and well-supplied history, today has a population of barely three million inhabitants . The heart of Armenia beats, however, around the world because of its diaspora, which has about 7 million people . The singer thus took up the cause of the Armenian people and culture so that the massacres perpetrated at the beginning of the twentieth century in the Ottoman Empire against its Armenian nationals, never fall into oblivion.

In 1975, when he is already a recognized international star, having no longer to prove himself, he writes one of the most committed songs and deep his repertoire: They fell . The lyrics express the horror of the 1915 genocide that killed more than one million Armenians.

" Aznavour has not been dismantled "

In 1981, the Armed Liberation Army of Armenia (Asala) commits a hostage-taking at the Turkish embassy in Paris, demanding state recognition of the Armenian genocide. The perpetrators of the act are arrested and brought before the French courts, at the same time as other members of Asala commit a murderous attack at Orly airport. " After Orly, the Armenians were shaving the walls. But Aznavour has not been dismantled, "said the columnist and activist of Armenian origin Ara Toranian in 2010, Slate.fr site.

" He still supported the four kidnappers of 1981. He sent a testimony in their favor, his letter was read at the appeal hearing. It was brave of him because he had a lot to lose. Under the emotion of the dead Orly, opinion, and perhaps even his public, could have turned against him, " he says.

Naturalized Armenian at 84

In 1988, when a devastating earthquake ravaged the Spitak region of northwestern Armenia, nearly 30,000 people lost their lives and more than 15,000 were left homeless. Aznavour then mobilized his forces. He wrote the words For you Armenia , a song composed by his brother-in-law, Georges Garvarentz, also born of Armenian parents. 24 artists joined them. Its success was important and the full rights of the disc, donated to the Aznavour Foundation for Armenia, helped the many victims of this powerful earthquake. Years later, Gyumri, the city most affected by the disaster, built a statue in honor of Charles Aznavour.

It was not until 2008, at the age of 84, that the singer received Armenian citizenship from the President of the Republic Serge Sargsian. This status allowed him to occupy the diplomatic post of Ambassador of Armenia in Switzerland from 30 June 2009. " I presented my credentials to Hans-Rudolf Merz, President of the Swiss Confederation ", had he proudly wrote on his website, he the son of immigrants who left school after obtaining his certificate of studies. Later, he was also appointed Permanent Representative of Armenia to the UN in Geneva.

" The Aznavour Movement "

Aznavour has also often told the media about its commitments. In particular, he declares in 2015 on RTL that he feels concerned by the desertification of rural areas in France. " We have an immigration, we talk about it for good or bad. We do not know what to do with it (...) We could do a kind of melting pot, and not all the same so that it is not ghettos, to recreate villages. They would be given something to rebuild what is no longer in the villages, "he said. He even wrote a song called " And I stay here " on his album Encores .

" I would like to call this movement " the Aznavour movement, "he added, adding that he had proposed his idea to François Hollande at the time. " I was listened to but maybe not heard, " he admitted.

An activist of genocide recognition

Of course, relations between Turkey and Armenia remained at the center of his concerns. Also in 2015, he declared on the occasion of the centenary of the Armenian genocide in the newspaper La Provence , " The problem [of the recognition of the genocide, ed] is simple and it is not expensive, which is very important for a country . In any case, it would cost them [the Turkish authorities, ed] less than to fund all those deniers, who know nothing about history, who say anything ".

" I think it's time for Ankara, I do not want to say the Turks because that would not be true, that Ankara therefore take an important decision, a real decision that would say that Turkey is a big country it would be a bigger country still if he recognized what happened, "he concluded. The future will tell whether the Turkish leaders will choose to follow this message of rapprochement between peoples or not.