Charles Aznavour was the son, the ambassador, the friend of Armenia, and the 1988 earthquake marked the beginning of his commitment to Armenia, President of France Emmanuel Macron said during the homage to Aznavour in Paris on Friday.

“He sang as if his life depended on it. He knew the tragedy of history and he was also familiar with hope. He gave a voice to those who have been silenced,” Macron said.

The French leader emphasized that through Charles Aznavour today we have an opportunity to remember “what we owe as a nation to all those Armenians fleeing their homeland and coming to  grow ours”.

“His songs were never just a summer hit, they were a soothing balm. He was a narrator of his times who took upon himself the pains of the day and bore it for us,” Macron said.

He added that “some of heroes become heroes with their blood, others with their use of and love for the language”, and the source of Charles Aznavour’s poetry was the French language.

“The poet makes the hard work of living easier. In France, poets never die. Long live the [French] Republic,” he concluded.