PARIS, France (A.W.)—Two French-Armenian historians, Anahide Ter Minassian and Raymond Kevorkian, are among five Armenian recipients of the French Legion of Honor (Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur), the highest decoration in France, in 2015.
By decree of French President Francois Hollande dated Dec. 31, 2015, the Grand Chancellor of the National Order of the Legion of Honour published the names of the honorees, which also include Professor Serge Nazarian, pharmacist and former president of the Armenian Association for Social Assistance André Yédikardachian, and banker Patrice Charles Tépélian.
Armenian-American professor Mark Moogalian, the first passenger to tackle a gunman aboard an Amsterdam-Paris train on Aug. 21, 2015, was awarded the Legion of Honor in September 2015.
Ter Minassian, whose work focuses on modern Armenian history, teaches at l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) and the Pantheon-Sorbonne University. Ter Minassian has published several books about Armenia and the Armenian Genocide, including La question arménienne (The Armenian Question) in 1983; 1918-1920-La République d’Arménie (1918-1920-The Republic of Armenia) in 1989; Histoires croisées: diaspora, Arménie, Transcaucasie (Intersecting histories: Diaspora, Armenia, Transcaucasia) in 1997; and Smyrne, la ville oublié: Mémoires d’un grand port ottoman, 1830-1930 (Smyrna, The Forgotten City: Memories of a Great Ottoman Port, 1830-1930) in 2006.
Kévorkian is a lecturer at the University of Paris VIII: Vincennes–Saint-Denis, and serves as research director at the French Institute of Geopolitics (Institut Français de Géopolitique). Kevorkian is also the director of Paris’s Nubarian Library and the editor of Revue d’Histoire arménienne contemporaine (The Journal of Contemporary Armenian History). In 2006, Kevorkian published The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History, the first book on the Armenian Genocide to make extensive use of the archives of the Nubarian Library. In 2010, he received the Presidential Award from Armenian President Serge Sarkisian in recognition of his scholarly work in Armenian history.
On Sept. 13, 2015, Armenian-American Mark Moogalian, the 51-year-old Sorbonne professor who was identified by the UK’s the Daily Telegraph as the first passenger to tackle gunman Ayoub El-Khazzani on Aug. 21 aboard an Amsterdam-Paris train, was awarded the French Legion of Honor by French President Francois Hollande.
During the high-speed train ride, Moogalian tackled El-Khazzani, who was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle. It is reported that he instinctively acted to protect his wife, Isabella Risacher, and managed to take the assault rifle away from El-Khazzani. The assailant drew another gun and shot Moogalian in the neck, revealed the professor’s sister, who was also on the train. Moogalian’s heroism, along with the actions of Americans Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone, and Anthony Sadler, and Briton Chris Norman, helped save many lives. Skarlatos, Stone, Sadler, and Norman were awarded the Legion of Honor soon after the attack. Hollande had announced he would award Moogalian the Legion of Honor once he had recuperated.
The French Legion of Honor, established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, is awarded for excellent civil or military conduct.
Congratulations
The strength of our Will! True Hye-Power!
My Father also received the french Legion of honor this year.His name is Set Proodian, he is Armenian. He was in the battle of the bulge and he received it for his service in France during WWII.please recognize him also.
Thank you President Hollande, and thank you France for the great honor.
J’ai l’honneur de faire la connaissance de Mme la Prof Anahid Ter Minassian et M le Prof R Kevorkian. Tous le monde arménien, spécialement le milieu académique, attend toujours de nouveaux travaux et livres de ces deux éminences.
E Karsaclian, Buenos Aires, Argentine
Awesome
vive la France vive la Armenia and president Hollander
THANK YOU PRESIDENT HOLLANDE !
SINCERE CONGRATULATIONS ! SO HAPPY TO KNOW THAT FIVE ARMENIANS HAVE BEEN AWARDED WITH FRANCE’S HIGHEST HONOR ! <3 <3 <3
Awesome, god bless
FRENCH LEGION OF HONOR.
Remember the PARIS TRAIN ATTACK?
Five (5) men saved the passengers with the takedown of the gunman.
I wanted to PROUDLY SHARE that one of the men, Mark Moogalian, who news reports had been described as a Frenchman or French-American IS of ARMENIAN heritage!
I believe he may be currently LIVING in France with his wife, but nonetheless, I knew from his name he was of ARMENIAN heritage and in this article he is described as such, Mark Moogalian, American-Armenian.
BRAVO to the bravery of the 4 AMERICANS and 1 BRITON involved in the takedown and disarming of the would-be TERRORIST on the train to Paris in Sept 2015.
5 BRAVE MEN, the
– 1st American (Moogalian, 51yrs old) who saw the gun and quickly got up and jumped at the gunman to protect his wife & knocked the gun away (and then was shot in his neck!)
Plus the younger men…
– 3 American young men & childhood friends (all under 25yrs old!) together on vacation in Europe,
– 1 Briton ( on the same train, age?)
for their critical roles, speed and brute strength… beating up and tying up the TERRORIST…
BRAVO! All 5 men (4 Americans & 1 Briton) awarded with France’s HIGHEST honor for bravery by Pres Hollande, FRENCH LEGION OF HONOR.
Sorry to burst your bubbles, but it was none other than France which betrayed Armenia after WWI and the Armenian Genocide. Together with its friend the UK, these two created a bunch of fake Middle Eastern states, and deliberately ignored the plight of Armenians in favor of Arabs and Turks.
The Hatay Province of present day Turkey could have been the ideal state of the devastated Armenians and a new Cilician Armenia could have been born on its own historic lands, instead they conspired with genocidal Turks with scam voting and as a result we have now lost much of our people and culture of that region which was thousands of years old.
So yeah, “thank you France” for giving ‘six Armenians’ the “highest honors”. We can also thank you for doing the same for 50 million Turks.