14.02.2026


On February 14, Laurent Le Bon, President of the Georges Pompidou Centre for Art and Culture in Paris, visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial, accompanied by Marina Hakobyan, Director of the National Gallery of Armenia.

The guests were welcomed by Edita Gzoyan, Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI), who escorted them to the Armenian Genocide Memorial and presented the history of its creation. The AGMI Director also spoke about the three khachkars (cross-stones) placed in the Tsitsernakaberd area in memory of the Armenians who fell victim to the massacres organized by the Azerbaijani government in the cities of Sumgait, Kirovabad (Ganzak), and Baku at the end of the last century, as well as the stories of the five freedom fighters buried in the section opposite the Memory Wall during the Artsakh war, emphasizing the connection between those events and the Armenian Genocide.

The guests from France laid flowers at the Eternal Flame and observed a minute of silence to honor the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide. Edita Gzoyan escorted them to the Memory Wall; enshrined in special niches behind the wall are small jars filled with soil taken from the graves of a number of foreign public figures, politicians, intellectuals, and missionaries who raised their voices in protest against the massacres and genocide of Armenians carried out by the Turkish government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The guests listened with great interest, particularly regarding the pro-Armenian activities of Anatole France and Louis Dartige du Fournet.

The AGMI Director presented the monument situated within the Genocide Memorial complex dedicated to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by France on January 29, 2001. Subsequently, the guests visited the Armenian Genocide Museum and toured the permanent and temporary exhibitions. At the conclusion of the visit, Mr. Laurent Le Bon left a note in the Memory Book of Honorable Guests.

Expressing gratitude for the visit, AGMI Director Edita Gzoyan presented the honorary guest with books about the Armenian Genocide.