Yerevan Municipality plans to unveil monument to Missak Manouchian

ArmInfo. A monument to the leader of the French Resistance movement Missak Manouchian by Sargis  Babayan will be erected in Yerevan. This was reported by the press service of the Yerevan Municipality, citing the results of a competition announced in November 2024, in which 10 sculptors participated.

The bust will be installed in the Missak Manouchian Park. The total  competition fund is 3 million drams.

It was previously reported that the monument is scheduled to be laid  in 2025.

In January 2022 a campaign was launched by Nicolas Daragon, mayor of  Valence, Drome, and Jean-Pierre Sakoun, president of Comite Laicite  Republique, and others to move Manouchian's ashes to the Pantheon.   Supporters included Katia Guiragossian, a great-niece of Missak and  Melinee Manouchian, sociologist Nathalie Heinich, historian Denis  Peschanski, and others. It further gained the support of the mayors  of Paris and Marseille Anne Hidalgo and Benoit Payan, former French  ambassador to Armenia Jonathan Lacote, and MPs from various parties.  In March 2022 Europe 1 reported that French President Emmanuel Macron  was planning pantheonization of Manouchian. A close presidential  adviser was quoted as saying:  "This file is at the top of the pile."  Le Monde reported Macron met with supporters of the campaign on March  30, 2022 at the Elysee Palace and several days later, Macron said of  Manouchian: "I think he is a very great figure and that makes a lot  of sense."

Transfer ceremony to the Pantheon of Missak and Melinee Manouchian.

Missak Manouchian and his wife Melinee were entombed in the Pantheon  on 21 February 2024, in commemoration of his execution's 80th  anniversary. He became the first communist to enter the Pantheon