PARIS – On Sunday, April 18, a key figure in the Armenian community in France, Achod Schemavonian, died of Covid-19 at the age of 85.
Achod was a veteran standard bearer of the National Association of Armenian Veterans and Resistance fighters and president of Association de Soutien aux Patriotes Arméniens (ASPA; Association for Aid to Armenian Patriots). He was present at all military ceremonies, greeted by all presidents from François Mitterrand to Emmanuel Macron. On his jacket he always wore the medals of his victories, including the Croix de Guerre from the Algerian War, and that of his hero Monte Melkonian.
He joined the Armenian National Movement in the 1970s and after its dissolution founded ASPA in 1988 to support combatants in the struggle against Turkey such as Mardiros Jamgotchian and Monte Melkonian.
For more than thirty years, this man whose heart was 100% French and 100% Armenian like that of Charles Aznavour, sent tens of thousands of parcels to Armenia containing humanitarian material which he collected all over France. Recently he also sent aid for the bereaved families of Artsakh.
His wife Elena had passed away not long ago this April.
The Armenian community in France has lost a very great servant of the cause.
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