‘A grateful France welcomes you, Missak and Mélinée,’ – Macron’s tribute at Manouchian pantheonization

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and his wife Anna Hakobyan, together with French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, attended the solemn pantheonization of WWII hero, Resistance fighter Missak Manouchian and his wife Mélinée in Paris on February 21.

Armenian and French government officials attended the event.

PresidentEmmanuel Macronpaid tribute to the memory of Missak Manouchian and his wife, Mélinée, also a Resistance fighter, during the ceremony when they were interred in the mausoleum housing France’s national heroes.

Macron said that as a free man Manouchian would walk the streets in Paris and envision his beloved Armenia.

"A gratefulFrancewelcomes you, Missak and Mélinée,” said Macron at a ceremony held exactly 80 years after they were killed. "The France of 2024 owes you this honor.”

Members of the French foreign legion carried the coffins of Manouchian and his wife, draped in French flags into the Pantheon. Manouchian’s final choice, Macron said, was freedom, and today, France is grateful to him and his wife.

The names of 23 of Manouchian’s fellow Resistance fighters will be engraved in the vault where the couple was laid to rest, France24 reported.

Missak Manouchian led a small group of foreign Resistance fighters against the Nazi occupation, carrying out attacks on German forces and acts of sabotage in Nazi-occupied France in 1943. Macronsaidin 2023 that Manouchian "embodies the universal values" of France and "carries a part of our greatness."

In 1944, the group, which included a number of Jews, was put out of action when 23 of its members were rounded up and sentenced to death by a German military court. Manouchian was shot by the Nazis on February 21, 1944.