Charles Aznavour honored with Hollywood star

Charles Aznavour, 92, honored with Hollywood star presented by California’s Armenians, lapresse.ca reported.

Aznavour, often dubbed France’s Frank Sinatra, said he was “deeply moved” by the recognition, which is not on Hollywood Boulevard’s main Walk of Fame but rather consists of a symbolic star dedicated by the Armenian community.

“I’ve been coming to Hollywood for years and I’ve worked a lot in the United States,” Aznavour told AFP. “America is the land of show business.”

Aznavour was born in France to Armenian parents. Some 1.5 million Armenians died in 1915-17 in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire in what Armenia, several foreign parliaments and many historians describe as genocide.

“What I find very funny is that Turkey lost something. They don’t have a single great singer and I could have been a Turkish singer, while today I’m a French singer,” Aznavour said.

“Which goes to show that there’s no purpose to genocide as there are always survivors,” he said.

Aznavour has written hundreds of songs in a career that spans more than 80 years, with more than 100 million records sold worldwide.