YEREVAN. – Armenian refugees from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on Monday held a protest in front of the French Embassy in Yerevan.

They ask France to end Azerbaijan’s occupation of Artsakh lands so that their Armenian residents can return to their homes.

"We are applying to the French embassy to help us. And we demand the government of Armenia to fulfill the obligations put before it," one of these protesters told reporters at the scene.

According to her, "The Republic of Artsakh is a de facto established republic; it was protected under many conventions. They [the Azerbaijanis] attacked with several [other] countries and threw [the Armenian residents] out. And now they are carrying out construction in the occupied territories, but no one says anything [about it]. Mechanisms are needed there to stop the genocide [of local Armenians], to stop the occupation, various aggressions.”