More than 200 French scholars, writers, actors and other cultural figures and celebrities signed a joint article-call expressing solidarity with the Armenians of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), and drawing attention to the existing risk of an ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan in Nagorno Karabakh and the ongoing blockade of the Lachin Corridor. The article is titled We Must Save the 120,000 Armenians of Artsakh and was published in the Le Figaro newspaper. The signatories include actors Jean Reno, Pierre Richard, Carole Bouquet, Virginie Ledoyen, filmmakers Costa-Gavras and Claude Lelouch, writers Sylvain Tesson and Pascal Bruckner and many other renowned individuals.
During this Christmas period, 200 intellectuals, writers, artists and cultural figures, including Sylvain Tesson, Carole Bouquet and Philippe Katerine, are mobilizing for the 120,000 Armenians of Artsakh (Haut-Karabakh), threatened with ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan.
During this Christmas period when we will join our loved ones, where we will rejoice in celebrating the family beyond all religious borders, where many of us will perhaps have a thought for those who are alone or in pain, let us remember us as the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, have been cut off for almost two weeks from the rest of the world by Azerbaijan .
At a time when our children will discover their gifts, the parents of the 30,000 children of Nagorno-Karabakh will aspire to one thing only: to preserve the life, the future of theirs in these high mountains where their ancestors were born more than two thousand years, and save them from slow asphyxiation.
After the war, after the phosphorus bombs, the tortures, which shattered so many lives in 2020, this is indeed the last perversion conceived by the Azerbaijani dictatorship: blocking the Lachin corridor, the only access route for the Armenians of Artsakh / Nagorno-Karabakh outwards. Consequence: separated families, shortages worsening day by day, the absence of medical help which has already cost a life and threatens several patients in critical care, including children.
Admirable courage of these people full of dignity who do not give in to panic and organize themselves, because they resist and will resist until the end. But they are counting on us, and we cannot escape their call. Strange Christmas 2022. We are celebrating the birth of a king of poverty and straw who has come to bring the warmth of his light to men. It is this date that a dictator of oil and growth points deliberately chooses to plunge a population into night and cold.
What future will we offer our children, if we give reason to dictatorship, to barbarism, against one of our oldest civilizations, against a brotherly people, linked to us for centuries, against a bridge people who has always contributed to the dialogue between cultures?
What will our children think, on what values will they be able to build themselves, if we let the unthinkable happen again? Yes, reproduce. Indifference, platonic protests authorize today’s aggressors to shamelessly claim to be the executioners of 1915, their sinister heritage, to use the same methods to put an end to those they abhor, because they look alike.
Thus our wishes that never the abominations of the 20th century reproduce themselves in ours were only pious and irenic wishes . So in this world the wicked always triumph as long as they have things to sell and provide to their neighbors.
The soul of the Armenians indeed inhabits our masterpieces of Romanesque art, the influence of our culture to the confines of the Orient, the thought of our philosophers of the Enlightenment, romantic poetry, our fights for justice, our accordion tunes, the bouquet of tulips you may offer on Saturday evening.
Finally, let us remember that if we know about Christmas, the Armenians no doubt had something to do with it, they who sent us their pilgrims from the fifth century , they who gave us the gingerbread that will garnish our tables and the name of the Magi.
Let us remember and above all, let us mobilize. From our united consciences, from our united voices, from all the ways in which each of us will oppose the drama that is being played out, we will be able to preserve the lives of the 120,000 Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
SIGNATURE:
Sylvain Tesson, writer
Pascal Bruckner, writer and philosopher
Michel Onfray, philosopher
Carole Bouquet, actress
Claude Lelouch, filmmaker
Philippe Katerine, actor and singer
Stéphane Bern, animator, actor and writer
Virginie Ledoyen, actress
Pascal Légitimus, actor and director
Sinclair, composer and singer
Alexandre Jardin, writer
Roschdy Zem, actor and director
Pascal Ory, from the French Academy
Marc Dugain, writer and filmmaker
Marc Coppey, cellist
Franz-Olivier Giesbert, journalist and writer
Nicolas Aznavour, co-founder of the Aznavour Foundation
Jean Reno, actor
Michel Quint, writer
Bishop Pascal Gollnisch, Director General of the Œuvre d’Orient
Jean-Marie Rouart, of the French Academy
Sorj Chalandon, writer
Costa Gavras, filmmaker
Daniel Pennac, writer
Pierre Richard, actor
Pierre Mazeaud, former President of the Constitutional Council
Robert Redeker, philosopher
Benoît Duteurtre, writer
Raphael Personnaz, actor
Philippe Jaenada, writer
Mathias Malzieu, singer and writer
Pierre Jolivet, filmmaker
Dominique Bona, from the French Academy
Gilbert Sinoué, writer
Frédéric Vitoux, of the French Academy
Jean Tulard, of the Institute
Simon Abkarian, actor
Bruno Abraham-Kremer, actor and director
Jean Achache, filmmaker
Luc Adrian, journalist
Antoine Agoudjian, photographer
Alain Altinoglu, conductor
Ardavan Amir-Aslani, lawyer
Jean-Baptiste Andrea, writer
Gorune Aprikian, filmmaker
Marie-Claude Arbaudie, producer
Gilles Arbona, actor
Christian Ardan, producer
François Ardillier-Carras, university professor
Ariane Ascaride, actress
Asilva, painter
Annick Asso, Doctor of Letters
Serge Avedikian, filmmaker
Barbara Balestas Kazazian, filmmaker
Elisabeth Barillé, writer
Nicolas Bary, filmmaker and president of Screens of Peace
Rodolphe Barsikian, plastic designer
Frederique Bel, actress
François-Xavier Bellamy, associate professor of philosophy
Alix Bénézech, actress
Alain Berliner, filmmaker
Dominique Bertail, author, cartoonist
Ludovic Berthillot, actor
Antoine Bordier, writer
Laurent Brunner, director of the Royal Opera and the Palace of Versailles
Jean-Christophe Buisson, Deputy Director of Figaro Magazine
David Camus, writer
Christian Carion, filmmaker
Jean des Cars, historian
Virginie Carton, journalist and writer
Louis Carzou, journalist and writer
Olivier Casas, filmmaker
Antoine Chereau, draftsman
Eric Chol, journalist
Joseph Chedid, composer and singer
Jean-François Colosimo, editor
Jean-Luc Cornette, comic book author
Anahit Dasseux-Ter Mesropian, psychoanalyst
Arnaud Delalande, author, screenwriter
Marina Dédéyan, writer
Alexandre Del Valle, essayist
Quentin Delcourt, filmmaker
Olivier Delorme, writer and historian
Annie Degroote, writer and actress
Hugues Dewavrin, vice-president of the Guild and the Screens of Peace
Jérôme Diamant-Berger, filmmaker
Benjamin Diebling, video game director
Hamza Djenat, photographer
Nicolas Djermag, actor
Evelyne Dress, filmmaker
Isabelle Duha, pianist
Ron Dyens, film producer
Atom Egoyan, filmmaker
Marielle Elis, producer
Frédéric Encel, essayist
Véronique Fauconnet, artistic director of theatre, actress
Charlene Favier, filmmaker
Pierre Filmon, filmmaker
Loïc Finaz, marine writer
Elsa Flageul writer
Lorraine Fouchet, writer
Dan Frank, writer
Deborah François, actress
Patrice Franceschi, writer
Olivier Frébourg, writer and editor
Antoine Gariel, theater director
Costanza Gastaldi, photographer
Eric Genetet, writer
Ronan Girre, filmmaker
Thierry Godard, actor
Nina Goern, singer of Cats on Trees
Alain Grandgerard, producer
Yulia Grigoryants, photographer
Robert Guediguian, filmmaker
Enguerrand Guépy, writer
Sophie Guillemin, actress
David Haroutunian, violinist
Roland Hayrabedian, conductor
Patrick Hernandez, producer, distributor
Jacqueline Hillion, National Education official
François Huguenin, historian, essayist
Nadia Jandeau, director
Annabelle Jacquemin-Guillaume, president of Fama
Emmanuel Jaffelin, philosopher
Michele Kahn, writer
Valerie Karsenti, actress
Baya Kasmi, filmmaker
Robert Kechichian, filmmaker
François-Xavier Kelidjian, lawyer
Gérard Krawczyk, filmmaker
Michaël Langlois, historian
Alexandra Lapierre, writer
Thomas Le Carpentier, archaeologist
Jean-Jacques Lemêtre, musician
Anne Le Ny, actress and filmmaker
Jacques Le Rider, director of studies at EHESS
Pauline Liétard, journalist and director
Carolina Lerena, producer
Jean-Karl Lucas, composer
Joseph Macé-Scaron, essayist, novelist
Caroline Madsac, co-president of the Darfur emergency collective
Jean-Pierre Mahé, historian
Elisa Mahé-Binet, writer
Christian Makarian, essayist, journalist
André Manoukian, songwriter, musician
Jacky Mamou, President of the Darfur Emergency Collective
Bruno Mantovani, composer and conductor
Aida Marcossian, pianist
Cécile Massie, photographer and general secretary of the Screens of Peace
Nathalie Marchak, filmmaker
Andrea Marcolongo, essayist
Nora Martirosyan, director
Guillaume Maurice, producer
Amélie Melkonian, producer
Benoît Menut, composer
Radu Mihaileanu, filmmaker
Thibault de Montaigu, journalist, writer
Jean-David Morvan, comic book scriptwriter
Alain Navarra de Borgia, sociologist and art historian
Lola Naymark, actress and director
Valérie Osouf, filmmaker
Alexandre Pachulski, writer
Julie Paratian, producer
Laurent Perez Del Mar, composer
Michel Petrossian, composer
Antoine Pierlot, cellist
Jean-Marc Philips-Varjabédian, violinist
Gilles Pointeau, graphic designer
Patrick Radelet, musician, composer
Henri Roanne-Rosenblatt, writer-screenwriter
Yves Roucaute, philosopher
Maya Sansa, actress
Isabelle Saporta, editor
Sylvain Savoia, author, cartoonist
Levon Sayan, producer
Fabrice Scott, actor
Séra, visual artist
Idir Serghine, filmmaker
Pr Alain Serrie, Honorary President of Pain Without Borders
Bernard Shalscha, journalist
Stéphane Simon, producer and journalist
Astrig Siranossian, cellist
Marzena Sowa, author, documentary filmmaker
Nicolas Steil, producer and director
Maud Tabachnik, writer
Akli Tadjer, writer
Alain Terzian, producer and director
Marine de Tilly, journalist and essayist
Ara Toranian, journalist
Valérie Toranian, journalist and writer
Marie-Claude Treilhou, filmmaker
Fanny Valette, actress
Olivier-Thomas Venard, theologian
Dan Verlinden, comic book author
Arnaud Viard, filmmaker
Virginie Visconti, producer
Olivier Weber, writer, journalist, president of “Pain Without Borders”
Charles Wright, writer
Tigran Yegavian, journalist and essayist
Benoît Yvert, editor
Corinne Zarzavatdjian, actress and writer
Henry Zipper de Fabiani, former ambassador
