Krikor Amirzayan, journalist, cartoonist and hyperactive member of the Armenian community of France
Friday, November 14 at 18:30 at the City of Bourg-Les-Valence (Drôme), Krikor Amirzayan will receive from the hands of the Ambassador of Armenia Vigen Tchitetchian, the Gold Medal of the Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia , the highest honor the department. An opportunity to retrace his path.
Krikor Amirzayan is a signature known to the Armenian press. Articles, stories or cartoons cast a keen eye and sharp on the current Armenian and capture the sensitivity of the reader by the reality of their features and comments.
The works of Krikor Amirzayan already famous in diaspora made their entry into the press of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh there is a little more than 20 years. Born June 16, 1956 in Aleppo (Syria), installed in the company of his parents since 1966 in Valencia, Krikor Amirzayan Achkhène is married to a wife who shoulder all the time. It is also Armenian born in Aleppo like him. The couple has three children, Alexander Armén (29), Christopher-Vicken Nansen (28) and Karine-Gariné (25 years). All three were born in Valencia, speaking Armenian.
Very young, Krikor passion for Armenia, but also science, sports, culture, astronomy and space exploration. July 21, 1969, at camp in La Fontanelle in the Gard, Krikor will not sleep all night to secretly follow the landing of the Apollo 11 rocket “I was interested in everything and on many subjects j ‘was unbeatable. But my real passion was the Armenian Cause, “he says today.
It is therefore natural that Krikor Amirzayan teenage campaigned in many Armenian organizations such as the Seround Nor (New Generation). In 1982, with a group of friends -after a passage where he gave Medusa Radio weekly Armenian information – Krikor Amirzayan co-founded in Valencia the only Armenian radio in the city, “Radio On”, a station that broadcasts TODAY ‘hui yet its 24 programs / 24.
Krikor Amirzayan is also the origin of the foundation of some Armenian associations, responding to the desire to cultivate Armenianness with generations of Armenians at the threshold of assimilation.
The first articles and cartoons Krikor Amirzayan appeared in 1979 in the monthly FRA Nor Seround “Haiastan.” Krikor Amirzayan then spent seven years writing and caricature in writing the monthly “France-Armenia” newspaper with wide circulation, which in the early 1980s broadcast to more than 20 000 copies.
Since then, many of his articles and cartoons are or were printed in a long list of Armenian newspapers as “Ashkhar” (Paris), “Horizon” and “Abaka” (Canada), “Navasart” (Los Angeles and Yerevan), “Azad Magazine “(Grenoble),” Arc-en-ciel Armenian “(Marseille),” Ble Boughi “(Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh),” Azg “(Yerevan),” Vozni “(Yerevan),” Avant-Garde “(Yerevan ), “Haik” (Yerevan), “Ararat” (Beirut), “Azad Or” (Athens), “Massis” (Los Angeles), “Arev” (Cairo), “GAMK” (Paris), “News of Armenia Magazine “(Paris). On the site armenews.com Krikor Amirzayan feeds daily readers Armenian news. Armenews.com the site of the “New Armenia” and elsewhere today the Armenian site in France most viewed by users or @ rménautes (a term he coined).
Works (cartoons and articles) Krikor Amirzayan are now known Armenian Europe, Middle East, Canada and the United States communities. Some articles or cartoons also appeared in the French press as “The World”, “The Express,” “The Point”, “The Event Thursday”, “Le Quotidien de Paris”, “France-Football ‘ “The Nose.” Articles whose sole purpose was to know Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, not to mention the Armenian community of France.
Today, nearly forty Armenian newspapers and publications disseminate works of Krikor Amirzayan remaining in Western Europe, the only regular cartoonist of the Armenian press. Tireless creator, Krikor Amirzayan to his credit hundreds of cartoons and tens of thousands of items. He also published two books of cartoons in French and Armenian in Yerevan in 1995 with “Independence” and in 1999 with “Akh! Hayastan, Hayastan! “(Oh, Armenia, Armenia).
Tireless worker Armenian press he married the Armenian cause in the service of Justice and its people.
During the War of Liberation of Karabakh, Krikor Amirzayan stayed there many times, bringing us images of war with the Armenian fighters, these fédayis on the war front. Images of the devastated city of Aghdam, or other regions of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In Karabakh, the greatest pleasure of Krikor has been to see his cartoons and make a “special war” in the satirical newspaper “Ble Boughi” Stepanakert numbers between 1992 and 1994. Either the worst years of the war. Copies of these papers were said to be at the front, raise the morale of Armenian troops. Cartoons Krikor had these fighters Armenians face the Azeri army, like the famous caricature of the tank spitting powered by Azerbaijani Azeri oil fire.
Krikor Amirzayan is happy president of the cultural association “Armenia” which shines for its initiatives and hundreds of cultural, artistic, literary and others was also for many years vice-president of the Social Centre du Plateau in Bourg -The-Valencia for three years president of the Association bourcaine “Freedom of the City.” A civic association that has provided many elected to City Council in Bourg-Les-Valence.
Besides 1995 until the last client, for 10 years, was Krikor Amirzayan Councillor Bourg-Les-Valence.
One who was dedicated in 2002 by the weekly “L’Express” among “The 50 personalities that move Valencia” is a lover of public affairs, associations and civic engagement. “I love Bourg-Les-Valence so that Armenia” he declared in 2005 “Dauphine Libere”. This is one of the reasons he asked that delivery of gold medal of the Ministry of Diaspora by the Ambassador of Armenia takes place in Viguen Tchitetchian Mayor of Bourg-Les-Valence, when he was the choice of receiving the Presidential Palace in Yerevan by the hands of the President of the Republic of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan. Armenian president that Krikor Amirzayan interviewed in Yerevan and Marseille repeatedly to “News Magazine of Armenia.”
At the end of his first book of Krikor Amirzayan writer, journalist and one of the founders of the Committee Karabakh Zori Balayan wrote: “Krikor Amirzayan as a cartoonist, has divine grace. During the most difficult times in our history, his cartoons were used as much sophisticated weapons. However, that is the happiest in the Nagorno Karabakh today, these weapons continue to exert their strength, while a peace returned. With his book “Yerkidzamard” (Independence), Krikor Amirzayan just puts men in custody without wisdom and humor, the most serious problems can be solved. And more with the use of force. “ The late writer, author of numerous lyrics and famous Armenian comedian Aramais Sahakian wrote in the second book of Krikor Amirzayan “It’s nice to write about a man who is nice to everyone. This nice man is the famous France Armenian cartoonist, humorist, journalist, football specialist and president of the cultural association “Armenia” in Valencia, Krikor Amirzayan. A man who has become by the grace of his art a kind of illumination of happiness. “
Aramais Sahakian: “I met Krikor Amirzayan by renowned sports commentator and editor of the weekly” Football + “and personal friend, Souren Baghdasaryan whose efforts led to the release in 1995 in Yerevan, the first free caricatures of Amirzayan “Yerkidzamard.” The book was a huge success. (…) I note with interest that the cartoons Krikor Amirzayan who have their own style, were published today and appear in almost all of the Armenian diaspora press, in foreign magazines and in Armenia where they are distributed as in “Vozni”, one of the regular writers Krikor is the talented and bright …. “(referring to Krikor the Illuminator boss of the Armenian Church ). Aramais Sahakian has also composed a poem dedicated to the art and personality of Krikor Amirzayan. Poem we read in the 4th cover of the second book of journalist and cartoonist warm and endearing public figure.