Monument to Komitas Vardapet Unveiled in Paris in Memory of Armenian Genocide Victims

Staff Report

A monument to the prominent Armenian composer Komitas, commemorating the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide, was inaugurated April 24 in central Paris. The six-meter high monument was unveiled on the banks of the Seine, by Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe. The idea of erecting this monument was born in the early 1980s, but it began materializing in 2001, when France officially recognized the Armenian genocide.

Mayor Delanoe said “To recognize that this genocide took place and to do so without any aggressiveness towards the Turkish people of today, to put this great monument in the heart of Paris to the memory of all the victims of the genocide and also of all Armenians who died for France is a way of saying: truth will not divide us, truth will bring us together.”

The large base of the statue has inscriptions on each of its four sides. On the front in French it says:
“In homage to Komitas, composer and musicologist, and to the 1,500,000 victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 carried out in the Ottoman Empire.”

On the back, it says about the same in Armenian. On the right side the inscription says in French:
“Until the Genocide of 1915, Rev. Fr. Komitas collected and transcribed the traditional folk songs of the Armenian people; thereby he was able to save an heritage of universal importance.”

On the left side it says in French: “To the memory of voluntary Armenian fighters and Armenian members of the resistance who died for France.” (Details of the inscriptions and photo were provided by Dr. Dickran Kouymjian, Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies and Director of the Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State)