Tweet
ARMENIANS NAME BABY 'SARKOZY' AFTER FRANCE VOTE
Agence France Presse
Jan 25 2012
YEREVAN - A couple in Armenia named their newborn baby after French
President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday in thanks for the French Senate
vote to outlaw denial of the genocide of Armenians during World War I.
The family said the child was given the first name Sarkozy out of
gratitude to the French leader, who many Armenians have praised for
backing the bill.
"We were going to name the baby after his grandfather, but after
the French Senate passed the bill despite threats from the Turks,
we decided to name him in honour of the president of France, this
brave man," the boy's grandmother Alvard Manukian told AFP.
"Let our baby, Sarkozy Avetisian, become a man as brave and just as
his namesake," his grandmother said.
Armenia has hailed Sarkozy for his commitment to the bill which has
infuriated France's NATO ally Turkey, with President Serzh Sarkisian
saying on Tuesday that France had "reaffirmed its greatness and power,
its devotion to universal human values".
Armenia and its diaspora in countries around the world have long
campaigned for international recognition of the killings by Ottoman
Turks during World War I as genocide, despite strong denials from
Turkey.
The issue has poisoned relations for decades between the two neighbours
whose mutual border remains closed.
Armenia says that planned massacres and deportations left more than
1.5 million of its people dead, but Turkey puts the number at up to
500,000, describing the bloodshed as civil strife.
From: Baghdasarian
Agence France Presse
Jan 25 2012
YEREVAN - A couple in Armenia named their newborn baby after French
President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday in thanks for the French Senate
vote to outlaw denial of the genocide of Armenians during World War I.
The family said the child was given the first name Sarkozy out of
gratitude to the French leader, who many Armenians have praised for
backing the bill.
"We were going to name the baby after his grandfather, but after
the French Senate passed the bill despite threats from the Turks,
we decided to name him in honour of the president of France, this
brave man," the boy's grandmother Alvard Manukian told AFP.
"Let our baby, Sarkozy Avetisian, become a man as brave and just as
his namesake," his grandmother said.
Armenia has hailed Sarkozy for his commitment to the bill which has
infuriated France's NATO ally Turkey, with President Serzh Sarkisian
saying on Tuesday that France had "reaffirmed its greatness and power,
its devotion to universal human values".
Armenia and its diaspora in countries around the world have long
campaigned for international recognition of the killings by Ottoman
Turks during World War I as genocide, despite strong denials from
Turkey.
The issue has poisoned relations for decades between the two neighbours
whose mutual border remains closed.
Armenia says that planned massacres and deportations left more than
1.5 million of its people dead, but Turkey puts the number at up to
500,000, describing the bloodshed as civil strife.
From: Baghdasarian