A bust of French Resistance fighter and national hero of France Missak Manouchian will be installed in a park in central Yerevan bearing his name.
The decision was approved at the March 12 meeting of the Yerevan City Council.
“This is a very interesting work selected through a competitive procedure, which we will install in the park named after Missak Manouchian,” said Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan, according to Armenpress.
Manouchian — an Armenian poet, anti-fascist fighter and hero of the French Resistance — led a group of European immigrants, including many Jews, that carried out sabotage operations against the Nazis during World War II.
The group led by Manouchian is widely considered to have been among the most active units of the French Resistance movement.
Manouchian and many of his comrades were arrested in November 1943 and executed by the Nazis on February 21, 1944. He was later recognized as a hero of the French Resistance.
In 2024, the remains of French national hero Missak Manouchian were reburied at the Panthéon in Paris. By unanimous decision of the Île-de-France Regional Council, a central high school in the Paris suburb of Châtenay-Malabry was named after Missak and Mélinée Manouchian.
Manouchian, posthumously awarded France’s Legion of Honour, has a street in Paris named after him in recognition of his legacy. He became the first foreign and communist Resistance fighter to be buried in the Panthéon.
