French ambassador to Armenia engaged in `Nikolism` by claiming that  `Artsakh was surrendered over 30 years ago` 

ArmInfo. French Ambassador to Armenia Olivier Decottignies is lying when he claims that Armenia has allegedly recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan since the  Alma-Ata Declaration, based on the fact that Artsakh was part of  Soviet Azerbaijan. This was stated by the leader of the Mother  Armenia opposition faction in the Yerevan Council of Elders Andranik  Tevanyan, responding to Decottignies' statements that Armenia has  recognized the NKR as part of Azerbaijan since the Alma-Ata  Declaration.

"With his statement, the French Ambassador is engaging in "Nicolism",  claiming that "Artsakh was surrendered more than 30 years ago", and  now everything has simply been "shifted onto poor Nikol". Either he  is not aware of the events that preceded and followed the Alma-Ata  Declaration, or he is pretending not to know this," Tevanyan noted.

In this vein, he asked a rather rhetorical question: what did  Armenia, Artsakh and Azerbaijan negotiate with the OSCE Minsk Group  co-chairs through the mediation of France, Russia and the United  States before the 44-day war, if Artsakh was recognized as part of  Azerbaijan by the Alma-Ata Declaration?

The oppositionist expressed his conviction that "on October 6, 2022,  Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan treacherously recognized  Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan through the mediation of French  President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Charles  Michel." According to him, this happened within the framework of the  promise given to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and with the  support of US President Joe Biden. Tevanyan explained that external  forces sought to withdraw Russian peacekeepers from the region and  did not care about the fate of the Armenians.

"Macron is well aware of his personal involvement and responsibility  for the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Artsakh. He is trying to  justify himself by declaring through his ambassador that  Nagorno-Karabakh was recognized as part of Azerbaijan 34 years ago.  This is such an outright lie and falsification of history that even  Aliyev does not make such statements. Macron and his colleagues must  admit their guilt and live with a sense of guilt for the crimes they  have committed. After Trump's election, they have become political  corpses. As for Nikol Pashinyan, Macron must explain to him that time  is up: Nikol has already committed his crimes and, together with  Zelensky, must think about saving his "skin," "Tevanyan summed up.

Earlier, the French Ambassador to Armenia Olivier Decottignies stated  that "Nagorno-Karabakh as a state was not recognized either by the  international community or by Armenia, while Armenia recognized the  NKR as part of Azerbaijan since the adoption of the Alma-Ata  Declaration."

He noted that during the Soviet era, Nagorno-Karabakh was a region  within Azerbaijan. "Those who say that this was recognized in Prague  in 2022 are lying, because Nagorno-Karabakh was recognized as part of  Azerbaijan since the adoption of the Alma-Ata Declaration (in 1991).  Prague only refers to this declaration.  Now the only question is how  to achieve a fair, stable peace in order to eliminate the threats  hanging over Armenia," Decottignies said.

The diplomat also stressed that France did not say that Russia had  abandoned Armenia, it was just a statement of fact. "We can say that  the 2020 war (the 44-day Artsakh war) took place on the  internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, Russia could not  interfere there. But in May 2021 and September 2022, when Azerbaijan  showed aggression against Armenia, when in the legal sense the  situation is more than transparent - a country that is not a member  of the CSTO will attack a CSTO member state, then Russia did not  intervene here either. And in September 2023, the Russian military,  who were in Nagorno-Karabakh to guarantee peace, did not budge when  Nagorno-Karabakh was attacked by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces," the  French diplomat noted.

It should be noted that if we open the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991,  it is written there in black and white that states within their  current borders are recognized. That is, at the time of the adoption  of this declaration, Artsakh was no longer part of Azerbaijan, and  after the plebiscite it was de facto an independent state. Moreover,  all independent experts unanimously note that the above declaration  cannot serve as a basis for delimitation between states, since at  that time it was declarative in nature, and there are no maps on its  basis.