Armenian Political Parties’ Youth Wings Try Not to Mingle Outside French Embassy (PHOTOS)

The first bouquet of flowers was placed outside the French Embassy in Yerevan this morning, followed by more flowers and more people as the day wore on.

One of the embassy’s employees, speaking to Epress.am, said how early in the morning, a vehicle parked outside the embassy, out of which stepped out a middle-aged man who placed a bouquet of roses outside the gates, said thanks and left.

“When we attempted to find out who it was from; he said, I’m Armenian,” the embassy employee said.

Later, expressing their thanks outside the embassy were members of the Republican Party of Armenia’s (HHK) youth wing, the Miasin youth movement, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, or ARF-D) youth union and the ARF-D Nikol Aghbalyan student union, as well as other students and members of the general public.

Those gathered wished to express their gratitude to France for adopting a bill to criminalize genocide denial and advised other countries to follow France’s example.

Around noon, members of the Prosperous Armenia (BHK) parliamentary faction’s youth wing joined those outside the embassy. They rushed to hand over their words of gratitude in writing to French Ambassador to Armenia Henri Reynaud.

Prior to the ambassador stepping outside to greet them, the youth from HHK, ARF-D and BHK stood separately, trying not to mix-up their respective groups — not standing with a BHK flag, for example, among HHK or ARF-D representatives.

A little while later, escorted by security officers, the BHK youth wing approached the ambassador, who they greet with applause and shouts of “Merci!”, and handed their letter.

The ambassador said that the bill is aimed at protecting the suffering of survivors.

“We hope that others too will follow this example,” said Ambassador Henri Reynaud.