YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. French Senator Valérie Boyer has rebuked a recent UN team’s visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, describing it as a ‘masquerade’.

“I think we need to defend Armenia, but not through the masquerade happening today,” she said, referring to the UN mission visit to NK. “Do you have the list of participating countries in the mission selected by Azerbaijan? There’s no one left in [Nagorno-Karabakh],” Boyer said during the C dans l'air program.

The Senator called on the French government to recall its ambassador from Azerbaijan and impose sanctions against Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

After most of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh had fled the region following the September 19-20 Azerbaijani attack, a UN team reportedly consisting of representatives of Turkey, Pakistan, Albania, Hungary and Russia – all traditional allies and partners of Azerbaijan - visited Nagorno-Karabakh and claimed that they were ‘struck by the sudden manner in which the local population left their homes’, and that they did not see 'any damage to civilian infrastructure'.

However, civilian infrastructures were extensively targeted by the Azeri military during the attack, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities reported during the hostilities. Civilian casualties included children. 

On October 3, a senior Armenian diplomat strongly criticized the UN team, saying that it was “discrediting the UN as an institution.”