Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 20
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
The French president will unlikely manage to change the unconstructive position of Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, by playing to this country, Azerbaijani political analyst, professor of Western University Fikret Sadikhov said in an interview with Trend.
It is difficult to expect a positive outcome on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a result of French President Francois Hollande's meeting with the Armenian leadership during his upcoming visit to Yerevan. And this is regardless of the extent of the French president's sincerity in his intentions, Sadikhov said.
Sadikhov was commenting on President Hollande's upcoming visit to the region.
Sadikhov said that there was no doubt that President Hollande will visit Armenia on April 24 and participate in the event dedicated to the "Centennial" of the so-called Armenian genocide. The issue of the so-called Armenian genocide is one of the priorities of France in its relations with Armenia, which has a long history, and France has never hidden this.
Yerevan will host an event dedicated to the "Centennial" of the so-called Armenian genocide on April 24. President Hollande also intends to participate there.
Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire allegedly carried out "genocide" against the Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. Turkey in turn has always denied "the genocide" took place. While strengthening the efforts to promote the "genocide" to the world, Armenians have achieved its recognition by the parliaments of some countries.
"Paris has been recently well aware that Azerbaijan is quite an important and significant player in the region," he said. "The relations are being established on a pragmatic basis with this country. There are a number of agreements, joint projects, including energy projects.
Even such a country like France is not able to ignore the important role of Azerbaijan in the region."
After a visit to Yerevan, the French president intends to visit Azerbaijan on April 25.
"The French president has decided to follow two factors," he said. "First, besides Armenia, he decided to pay a visit to Azerbaijan and thus to testify his respect and good intentions to continue developing bilateral relations. The second factor is that President Hollande as the president of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing country thinks that he must express his opinion on this issue and discuss this issue with the presidents of two countries - Azerbaijan and Armenia."
France has been engaged in settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for a long time.
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 two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Edited by CN
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