Street in Paris to be renamed after Zabel Yesayan

During the official visit to France, the delegation led by President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan had a meeting with Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who stated that Paris would be renaming one of the streets of the city after famous Armenian writer, translator, publicist and feminist Zabel Yesayan.

“Paris and Yerevan, France and Armenia have as many things to give to each other as they do to take from each other, and it is that reciprocity that characterizes the great friendship. I would like to inform you that Paris is in solidarity with Oriental Christians, as well as all the victims of the conflicts in Iraq and Syria. The solidarity is clear to see and is manifested through the reception of numerous refugees and the establishment of bridges that are often fragile and the establishment of bridges that are sometimes well-built, but I know that any small bridge is more valuable than all the haughty walls of the world. It is on those bridges that the Armenians of the Diaspora have crossed. Paris owes it to them for the cultural, intellectual and spiritual wealth, and the Armenians of Paris are grateful to them for their survival and future renaissance.

As evidence of those bridges, we have decided to rename one of the streets of Paris after Zabel Yesayan, who was in the focal point of the sufferings that the Armenian people underwent and serves as a symbol of all those sufferings.

In Paris we preserve the memory of all the sufferings that the Armenian people underwent, their struggles and rebellions, but at the same time, we open the potential roads so that they, as in Yerevan, express the hope and show the discoveries and initiatives.”