YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The delegation led by Lyon Mayor Georges Képénékian, Armenian by origin, will visit Armenia on March 3-7. ARMENPRESS reports Lyonmag.com informs, emphasizing that the cooperation between Lyon and Yerevan was established long before, back in 1992.

It’s planned that in the sidelines of the visit Yerevan and Lyon will discuss the cooperation plan until 2020.

Georges Képénékian is a French politician of Armenian origin serving as Mayor of Lyon since 17 July 2017. He is a member of France's Socialist Party.

Képénékian is a doctor and surgeon in urology and prior to his election as mayor was the strategic director of Centre hospitalier Saint-Joseph Saint-Luc in Lyon since 2005.

He was elected as Lyon municipal counselor from the 3rd arrondissement of Lyon and became a permanent member of the greater Metropolitan Lyon area Municipal Council. Since 2008, he headed the municipality's culture, great events and citizens' rights portfolios and in 2014, was appointed as principal deputy mayor to Lyon mayor Gérard Collomb.

After nomination of mayor Gérard Collomb as French Interior Minister in the first Édouard Philippe government under president Emmanuel Macron, Képénékian was elected by the Municipal Council as mayor of the city with absolute majority on 17 July 2017, with 49 votes, 13 more than the required absolute majority needed which is 36, representing a major win for the Socialist Party. His main rival Stéphane Guilland from The Republicans (LR) received 12 votes, with 6 votes going to Denis Broliquier of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) and 3 for Nathalie Perrin-Gilbert of the Groupe de Réflexions et d'Actions Métropolitaines, a Lyon local political movement also known as GRAM.

Képénékian was born in 1949 in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon to Kevork Képénékian. He is engaged in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and is a former member of administration of foundation Bullukian of Lyon.

English –translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan