According to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Armenia Jean-Francois Charpentier, the possibility of understand each other is also a possibility to dialogue.
On October 10-11, Yerevan will host the 31st session of the foreign ministers conference of Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, which will attended by over 500 representatives of OIF member states and the Secretariat upon arrival in Yerevan.
In this respect, “Aravot” talked to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Armenia Jean-Francois Charpentier (in the photo). We asked Mr. Ambassador to address the significance of the event in general and the fact of conducting it in Yerevan. “France can express its satisfaction that the 31st Francophonie Ministerial Conference was convened is hosted in Yerevan. In 2012, at the Francophonie Summit held in Kinshasa (The Democratic Republic of the Congo), Armenia unanimously became the during the 54th full member state of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.
Despite being a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Armenia naturally wished to emphasize its active participation, one of the variants was Armenia’s desire to host the Ministerial Conference. Incidentally, last year, during the Ministerial conference in Dakar, all the participants unanimously welcomed the proposal,” said Mr. Charpentier.
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We wondered about the message of the conference and what significant points he will emphasize. The ambassador replied that the messages are the same, again they will focus on tolerance, dialogue and human rights protection. “If we formulate the trends adopted by the 31st conference, then three words will be stressed: tolerance, youth and climate change. Recently, the concern about the climate change by many countries is especially great,” added the ambassador.
To the question of “Aravot” whether it is possible to preach Francophonie values in Eurasian Armenia, and whether he does not see controversies of ideologies, our interlocutor replied, “I do not see any contradiction. To develop my thought, I will also use the term globalized world which is very common recently. It implies a process that is intended to expansion, contact at economic levels of different countries and not only economic. It is about the globalized relationship of the people in general where there is no exclusivity approach. There are many countries in the world that are members of several structures at the same time. Let’s take the example of France. France is an EU member state. France is the president of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, also a member of NATO, also a full member of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. All these things do not contradict one another. Or, let’s take the African continent, where there are different countries integrated to different structures. At the same time, many African countries are also members of the International Organization of La Francophonie.” Since the RA National Assembly is a full member of the Francophonie Parliamentary Assembly since 2014, we asked the Ambassador about the effectiveness of this cooperation.
“Since the establishment of this cooperation, parliamentary diplomacy demonstrates its share of involvement in this process, which I estimate positively. In March, another important meeting was conducted between the Francophonie Parliamentary Assembly and the RA NA Parliamentary Group, which cannot but give positive results,” was the answer.
In the conversation with Mr. Charpentier, we stated that there are two francophone universities in Armenia: the French University of Armenia and the French engineering Institute, we also asked whether something is in the plans of these universities in general. “In March 2011, Armenian branch of the international network of Senghor Chair of Francophonie was opened at the French University of Armenia with the aim to make Francophonie known by its various sides. I express my gratification that the French University in Armenia has the chance to work with relevant structures of the Senghor Chair network. The opening of such a Chair at the French University of Armenia is a great progress because this is the network, based on scientific level, that enables the professors and scientists work together. Apart from Senghor Chair, there is one more important structure – the University Agency of Francophonie, which is headquartered in Canada. It is a powerful structure in the sphere of University cooperation.
The Universities of Armenia: the French University of Armenia, Yerevan State University, Yerevan State Linguistic University after V. Brusov, and the National Engineering University of Armenia are members of this structure. The Yerevan State Medical University also intends to join. In addition, under the conference, the issue of enhancement of relations between the higher education institutions will also be discussed. All such issues are on the agenda. Moreover, on October 12, it is planned to organize a big meeting with the OIF Secretary General and the representatives of the University Agency,” informed the ambassador.
He also mentioned that on the occasion of the upcoming Francophonie Ministerial Conference, the embassy together with the Foreign Ministry partners will organize two cultural events. The Francophonie “BIC” rap-folk band from Haiti and “Pockemon Crew” hip-hop band will perform a free outdoor concert on October 9 at the Cascade Complex and on October 11 at the Puppet Theatre. The Embassy expects to see a large audience to these unique cultural events. “We definitely want the important political event be accompanied by a cultural focus. We hope that the Secretary of State for European Affairs of France, Harlem Desir will attend the first concert and one more concert will be scheduled for the delegates attending the Conference. We wanted to show the Armenian audience the dynamics, which Francophonie is endowed in all parts of the world where it is praised,” he stressed.
We asked Mr. Charpentier asked that every ambassador after the completion of his diplomatic mission is remembered by an action, a formed tradition, so how he would like to be remembered. “I have just commenced my mission in Armenian, and I have not thought that a place should be envisaged for me in the Armenian-French diplomatic history. I have not set a goal to associate my name with an event. My approach is the following: to promote every important thing to be implemented. To begin with, on arrival in Armenia, I discovered that the Armenian-French relations cover a wide range of activities.
I personally attach great importance to the deepening of economic relations, I want them to reach a level as the Armenian-French political and cultural relations are. I want to contribute to knowing the true France in Armenia. Otherwise, the France that existed some 30-40 years ago is still seen in the eyes of the people in Armenia. I want the Armenians to love today’s France and be familiar to today’s France. This requires that many more books should be translated, many more modern French films should be screened, contemporary French music and art, in all its forms, be presented in Armenia, the Armenian scientists and researchers should communicate more closely with superpower France that has huge scientific and technical achievements. This is the very challenge that I have affixed for me and all my teammates with whom I work,” said the ambassador.
Since there is an opinion that the culture is the greatest politics, and the beauty will save the world, we asked Mr. Ambassador whether he also supports this view. “Changing the world will be a bit pretentious, but the fact that the art and culture have the role to keeping the balance between humanity and refraining the humanity from evil, from misunderstanding each other, from conflicts and wars, it is true. The more people communicate with each other, the easier it becomes to understand the other person. The chance to perceive each other reciprocally is also a chance of a dialogue,” the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Armenia Jean-Francois Charpentier is sure.
Gohar HAKOBYAN, “Aravot” daily
