A khachkar dedicated to the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide was installed and consecrated in the courtyard of the Armenian Catholic Church of St. Gregory of Narek in Saint-Chamond, France, reports Zartonk Media.
The project came at the initiative of Manvel Paramazyan, the mayor of the Kajaran community in Syunik Province since 2017, who said, “The installation of the Armenian khachkar is a symbolic event not only for the Armenian community of France but for all Armenians.” He said the stone would stand as a lasting symbol of the memory and of Armenian and French friendship.
Bishop Élie Yéghia Yéghiayan, prelate of the Armenian Catholics of France, consecrated the stone with the blessing of Father Raphael Shefikyan. Saint-Chamond Mayor Axel Dugua also spoke. Yéghiayan then presented Paramazyan with the medal named for Saint Ignatius Maloyan, and Father Shefikyan presented him with the St. Gregory of Narek medal of the Saint-Chamond parish, in recognition of his contribution to Armenian spiritual and cultural heritage.
Maloyan was the Armenian Catholic Archbishop of Mardin. He refused to convert to Islam and was shot near the city on June 11, 1915. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 2001, and Pope Leo XIV canonized him at the Vatican on October 19, 2025.
Kajaran and Saint-Chamond became sister cities through the partnership between Syunik and France’s Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. A Francophone Center opened in Kajaran in June.
In September 2023 Saint-Chamond became the fourth French local authority to sponsor an Armenian unlawfully held by Azerbaijan, signing for Hrayr Tadevosyan, a soldier captured at Khtsaberd in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in December 2020, a month after the ceasefire, and sentenced by a Baku court to six years. The city announced his release in January 2024.
Azerbaijan has unlawfully held 19 Armenians since its ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, among them the 8 former leaders it seized in September 2023: presidents Arayik Harutyunyan, Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan, state minister Ruben Vardanyan, parliament speaker Davit Ishkhanyan, foreign minister Davit Babayan, Defense Army commander Levon Mnatsakanyan and first deputy commander Davit Manukyan. A Baku court sentenced 5 of them to life in February.
Another Genocide khachkar already stands in Saint-Chamond’s Place du 24 avril 1915, named for the date the Genocide began. The city raised it together with local French-Armenian residents and institutions.
