Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan visited Fresno on Wednesday, part of a six-day tour in California.

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer escorted Khachaturyan to the Ararat Cemetery to lay flowers at the William Saroyan gravesite, then they went to the William Saroyan House Museum. The visit concluded with lunch at The Palms.

Dyer called the visit “a great honor.”

“It was a great opportunity to share a lot of the similarities between Armenia and Fresno in terms of the people we have here,” Dyer said. “And the thing that I didn’t realize was how much of a hero that William Saroyan was, across the world and especially in Armenia, because we sometimes take him for granted here in our own city.”

The Saroyan Theatre in downtown Fresno honors the legendary Armenian American novelist and playwright who called Fresno home.

The Fresno mayor plans to pay back the visit in October as part of a medical mission organized by local groups. Dyer said there are talks to make the Armenian capital Yerevan a second sister city. In 2020, Fresno and Etchmiadzin became sister cities.

Later on Wednesday, Khachaturyan headed to Sacramento for a meeting with Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Honorary Consul: Unprecedented Visit

Berj Apkarian, the Fresno-based Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia, glowed about Khachaturyan’s visit.

“It’s unprecedented. Because this is the first time, that a president of Armenia visited the Central San Joaquin Valley, and Fresno in particular,” Apkarian said. “The visit was short but very impactful, very positive, very uplifting. And I’m truly honored and excited to take part of it.”

At lunch, Apkarian said, “We talked about collaboration (and) the strong relationship between Armenia and the central San Joaquin Valley.”

Aparkian said he wished the president had more time in town to visit the Fresno State Armenian Studies program.

The William Saroyan House Museum is at 2729 W. Griffith Way in west-central Fresno. It offers an immersive, interactive high-tech experience in one of two side-by-side homes that Saroyan owned during his later years — a period in which Saroyan could often be seen riding his bicycle all over town.

This trip was unprecedented in that the only way anyone would know it happened is if a homeless person lit the cemetery on fire.

What a slap in the face to local Armenians. https://t.co/XFpt983wrx pic.twitter.com/UY3psQfq0Q

— Alex Tavlian (@tavlian) May 8, 2024