Journal ArticleOpen Access

When Armenians Take to the Streets: The 1979 March from Lyon and the Struggle for Genocide Recognition in France

Toulajian, Sophie-Zoé · 2025

This article reconstructs the 1979 march from Lyon organized by Armenian activists in France demanding acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide. Toulajian argues that street protest had a performative impact, consistently inserting the genocide question into the French public sphere through a transnational repertoire of activism. She shows how the marchers embodied overlapping identities at once, French, Armenian, diasporic, and global, and how the mobilization responded to both local French circumstances and international developments. The study situates Armenian activism within the broader landscape of 1970s protest movements rather than treating it in isolation. Methodologically, it makes a case for connected histories and multiple timelines as tools for understanding diasporic political engagement. The article appears in a special issue on law, activism, and the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide edited by Julien Zarifian and Edita Gzoyan.

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Published in

International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2 (2025), pp. 125–141 (Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Foundation, Yerevan); DOI 10.51442/ijags.0073

Year

2025

Language

English

DOI

10.51442/ijags.0073

Citation

Toulajian, Sophie-Zoé 2025. When Armenians Take to the Streets: The 1979 March from Lyon and the Struggle for Genocide Recognition in France. International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2 (2025), pp. 125–141 (Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Foundation, Yerevan); DOI 10.51442/ijags.0073. https://doi.org/10.51442/ijags.0073

What this offers a reader

For students

A generation of French-Armenian students your age took to the streets in 1979 and forced the genocide onto France's public agenda. This is how they did it.

For academics

Applies connected-histories methodology and social-movement theory to diaspora mobilization, reframing 1970s Armenian activism within transnational protest repertoires.

For the community

A moving account of how our community in France marched together and refused to let the world forget.

For a general reader

The story of a 1979 protest march from Lyon that helped push France toward recognizing the Armenian Genocide.