Ibrahimbeyov was awarded the title of Commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters in 2000. He renounced this award in 2012 as a sign of protest against a French law criminalizing the refusal of qualifying the 1915 events as "the Armenian genocide." In an open letter, he stated: "For opportunistic purposes and electoral gains, which are so highly insignificant compared to the democratic image of the country, there has been passed a law preventing the people of France from exercising their basic civil right of self-expression." Ibrahimbeyov also quit the position of President of the Azerbaijan—France Cultural Ties Society.