French Ambassador rebukes Azeri official about Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians’ right to return

French Ambassador to Armenia Olivier Decottignies has reacted to a statement made by the Azeri envoy to the Netherlands by reminding the latter about the binding ICJ rulings, including the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians’ right to return. 

“Mr. Ambassador, there is no legal term ‘good guys’ as you mentioned. The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh bear the rights recognized by the International Court of Justice, starting from the right to return. And the court’s rulings are binding,” Decottignies said on X in response to a statement by Rahman Mustafayev, the Azeri Ambassador to the Netherlands, who claimed that Nagorno-Karabakh didn’t fall, but is rather undergoing a ‘revival’ and obtaining prospects of developments, and if Armenians are the “good guys” they will be able to benefit from these prospects. 

The Azeri envoy’s statement was made in response to the France public television broadcast of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony, shared on X by Decottignies, where the France 2 TV reporter called Armenians "our friends" and said that Nagorno-Karabakh had recently "passed into the hands of the Azerbaijani Army." 

“Armenia, our Armenian friends, a country historically close to the hearts of the French,” the French 2 commentator said when Team Armenia was introduced during the Parade of Nations. “A year when…Nagorno-Karabakh passed into the hands of the Azerbaijani Army.”