On January 24, a day after the French Senate approved the bill decriminalizing the Armenian genocide, a prominent Azeri screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov announced his refusal to accept the French order of Arts and his resignation from the post of a president of Association of Azerbaijan-France Cultural Ties.

“An event happened that stirs up bitterness and indignation of all those who love France dearly with her democratic traditions – the parliament decision foreseeing criminal liability for the denial of the Armenian genocide. The anti-Turkishness of the bill is obvious,” stated Ibragimbekov.

At the same time he says “representatives of the whole Turkic world become hostages of such a decision and I, as a citizen of Azerbaijan, state that under the current circumstances I can’t help but refuse the French Order of Art and Literature and give up my duties as the president of Association of Azerbaijan-France Cultural Ties”.

In January 2009, Ibragimbekov then residing in Moscow, stated: “I am not afraid of Armenians. We forgave them the Azeri genocide of 1920, we forgive them the massacre in Karabakh… And I refuse to scold all Armenians. There are many good people among them, but they are afraid to speak out the truth, as Armenians are not a nation, but an organization.”

The statement by the honored Azeri artist questions the feasibility of a point in the Sochi statement (by the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) referring to the necessity of developing a “people’s diplomacy” through communication between Armenian and Azeri artists.

Ibragimbekov’s statement was voiced a day after the Sochi statement, saying part “presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have stated their willingness to assist further establishment of dialogues between representatives of intelligentsia, and those of scientific and social circles.”

This idea of “establishing dialogues” is not something new. First such contacts were made several years ago, for example, in 2007 when a group of Armenian and Azeri cultural figurs paid one-day visits to Yerevan, Baku and Stepanakert, stirring controversial public response.

In July 2009 Ambassadors of Armenia and Azerbaijan to Russia, composers Armen Smbatyan and Polad Bulbuloglu visited Stepanakert (capital of Karabakh), and met presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. A couple of months later, the same musician and diplomat Bulbuloglu stated that the time had come to liberate “the occupied territories at any cost, and every Azeri has to be ready to do so”.

“If Azerbaijan starts hostilities no one would have a right to interfere with that conflict, because Azerbaijan would be fighting on its own territory,” he said, adding that only after that people of creative minds would be able to visit the “liberated” Karabakh.

Hence, Ibragimbekov’s statement and several other not so fruitful attempts at “people’s diplomacy” make it obvious that it’s premature to speak about productivity of such meetings. And even more so, considering the statement by Nizami Jafarov chairing the Culture Committee of the Azeri parliament made not so long ago, in which he said that “Armenians are manipulating people’s diplomacy, but representatives of Azeri intelligentsia are informed about Armenians’ true intensions, thus will not trust their statements”.