Baku, Azerbaijan, April 28
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
France's National Assembly on April 28 adopted the resolution regarding the lift of the EU sanctions against Russia with relation to the Ukrainian crisis, with 55 MPs voting in favor and 44 against it.
French senator Nathalie Goulet called this a "very interesting strategy of the Armenian Lobby in the French Parliament."
Francois Rochebloine, one of the worst enemies of the international law and legitimate rights of Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh, presented in France's National Assembly a resolution to lift the sanctions against Russia, Goulet told Trend.
Francois Rochebloine, a member of the New Center party, earlier told RIA Novosti that the vote was called at Member of the center-right Republicans party Thierry Mariani's request on the grounds that sanctions were harmful for both countries.
"Asking for lifting of the sanctions is a confession of the connection between all illegal occupations in the region," Goulet said. "The link with Nagorno-Karabakh occupation is obvious."
Goulet added that Francois Rochebloine's support for the sanctions lifting is not surprising, considering that he supports the occupation of Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region by Armenia.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.