Pan Armenian News
KILIKIA ARMENIAN VESSEL SOLEMNLY WELCOMED IN BRUSSELS
06.07.2005 03:49
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The solemn ceremony of greeting the Armenian vessel of
Kilikia was held July 3 in the Honorary Dock of the Marseilles port on the
initiative of the RA Embassy in France, RA MFA press center reported.
Armenian Ambassador Edward Nalbandian, heads of the Marseilles city
administration, council of the province of Bouches-du-Rhone, senators, MPs
and over a thousand representatives of the Armenian community of France were
present at the ceremony. Welcoming the arrival of the vessel Edward
Nalbandyan noted that Marseilles for many years has been a hospitable port
for Armenians and it was also a life-saving coast for the Armenians, who
survived the Genocide. `Kilikia is conveying us to the times when the
Kilikian Kingdom and its vessels were welcome guests in the ports of the
Mediterranean’, the Armenian Ambassador to France stated. `It is symbolic
that the ashes of last Kilikian king lie in the French ground near graves of
the French kings, in the Saint Denis Basilique’, he noted. The vessel will
stay in the port till July 6.