Born in Paris in 1844, Anatole Thibault France, known as Anatole France, was a great humanist and progressive, writer, poet and novelist, and a Nobel Prize winner.
His first intervention on the Armenian question dates back to 1897, in the aftermath of the massacres perpetrated by the sultan Abdul Hamid II against Ottoman subjects of Christian Armenian origin.
With Émile Zola he fought for the acquittal of the Frenchman Alfred Dreyfus, the officer of Jewish origin sentenced for spying and high treason by an anti-Semitic court martial and later found to be innocent.
In 1901 he founded the newspaper "Pro Armenia" with Clemenceau and Jaurès. He is celebrated for his addresses: "A Thought is Already an Action", "A Person that Refuses to Die Will Never Die". He intervened on behalf of the Armenians in Rome, London, Geneva and Paris, making inflammatory speeches against Ottoman Empire's despotic and nationalistic tendencies.
In 1916, in the aftermath of the Armenian genocide, during the great demonstration "Homage à l'Armenie" organised at the Sorbona, Anatole France shouted to the crowd "Armenia Is Dying but Will Be Born Again!".
He died in Paris. His funeral, on October 18th 1924, was attended by a crowd of two hundred thousand people.
Gardens that honour Anatole France
Anatole France is honoured in the Garden of Yerevan.
