Hollande's meeting with Dashnaks: Futile discussion with no real impact Familiar faces and empty conversations

Former French President François Hollande made a rare appearance, not as an active and ambitious French politician, but in a meeting with Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) "Dashnaktsutyun." The meeting would have held little interest if it had focused on something like the musical legacy of Charles Aznavour. However, Hollande and the Dashnaks chose to discuss a far more inconsequential topic.

According to the ARF-D office, "The meeting involved discussions on Armenian-French relations, the security situation in Armenia, regional political developments and the current situation regarding the Artsakh issue." They might as well have discussed Armenia's demographic challenges—after all, they are real, unlike the "Artsakh issue." Azerbaijan has fully restored its sovereignty and territorial integrity, as repeatedly acknowledged by Armenia, including by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Moreover, the Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly, Alen Simonyan, even stated that Azerbaijan's restoration of its territorial integrity was in full accordance with international law. Therefore, the only thing left to discuss is the timing and terms of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

However, these discussions clearly have no bearing on former French President Hollande and the representative of the Armenian party, whose members have carried out terrorist attacks in France and beyond. Hollande has long been considered a political zero in his own country, and the Dashnaks are widely regarded in Armenia as a key cause of the country's past and present woes. Their political standing is so low it’s almost indistinguishable from a statistical error.

The situation is so obvious that it's almost a waste of time to write these lines. But as we can see, Saghatelyan decided to raise the topic of "international support in the matter of freeing Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan, including the military and political leadership of Karabakh, and the realization of the right for Karabakh Armenians to return" during his conversation with Hollande. Everything about this statement is amusing. From the naïve belief of the Dashnak in Hollande’s ability to secure "international support." Monsieur François is long past being capable of anything, let alone such an endeavour. During his tenure as the head of the French state, he became known for approving a bill to legalize same-sex marriage and grant same-sex partners the right to adopt. And of course, everyone remembers how he waffled between journalist Valérie Trierweiler and actress Julie Gayet.

During Hollande's presidency, the four-day battles in Karabakh took place, demonstrating the overwhelming superiority of Azerbaijan's army over the Armenian forces. Neither the Dashnaks nor the officials in Paris were able to prevent Azerbaijan's army from delivering a localized defeat to the Armenian occupiers and seizing control of strategically important heights. Surprisingly, Saghatelyan seems to have forgotten this.

As for the former leaders of the Karabakh junta, numerous efforts have been made to secure their release. For example, pressure was applied to the official Baku before and during the COP29 event. The result of these efforts is well known—a complete failure for the global Armenian community and, particularly, the Dashnaks, the most militant and provocative faction among them. Azerbaijan is not France, and it does not release Armenian terrorists.

As for the return of ethnic Armenians to the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, this process cannot begin until Azerbaijani citizens, forcibly expelled from their historic lands at the end of the 1980s, are allowed to return to Armenia. Moreover, experience has shown that those Armenians who lived illegally in Azerbaijan's temporarily occupied territories face significant difficulties in Armenia. As a result, many have chosen to move to other countries.

Thus, the meeting was completely pointless in terms of addressing the issues raised during the conversation. Perhaps, upon returning to Yerevan, Saghatelyan will proudly recount to fellow Dashnaks how he strolled through Paris and conversed with Hollande. It should be noted that a meeting between Nikol Pashinyan and Emmanuel Macron would have been equally pointless. Azerbaijan has already proven its ability to uphold international law, implement UN Security Council resolutions, and restore its territorial integrity, regardless of the plans of Paris and Yerevan.

Indeed, there are visible attempts by Macron to rehabilitate his image in the eyes of the Armenians. This is evident in France's political, financial, and military support for Armenia, based on the naive hope that it would lead to "revenge." In reality, this will only result in yet another military-political debacle for Armenia. It is quite possible, however, that Macron will hear the news of this failure not as the president of France, but as a former one, much like Hollande. In this capacity, he might not only meet with Dashnaks in Paris, but also visit Lake Goycha, which Armenians refer to as Lake Sevan, to compare the qualities of French cognac with Armenian brandy while fishing for trout.