Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 28
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
France should suppress its local authorities' attempts of cooperation with the unrecognized regime in Nagorno-Karabakh, Jean-Francois Mancel, member of the French National Assembly, president of the Association of Friends of Azerbaijan in France, told Trend Apr. 28.
"Relations between Azerbaijan and France have always been at a high level regardless of which political forces are in power in France," he said.
The two countries had such high level of relations during Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency as well, and these relations continue today when Francois Hollande is France's president, added Mancel.
"There is a good legal framework between the two countries, and the political, economic and humanitarian relations between them continue to develop successfully," he said.
Meanwhile, it is not a secret that there is a very strong Armenian lobby consisting of around 600,000 people in France, added Mancel.
According to him, representatives of the Armenian lobby are quite active and seriously affect the French politics by resorting to electoral blackmail in this issue.
"Analyzing the situation, we will see that the French cities and local authorities that have signed agreements on cooperation with the settlements in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and providing support to the separatist regime there, are the cities of historical Armenian emigration," said Mancel.
He added that the local authorities of those French cities are mostly subjected to the Armenian influence due to the large number of voters of Armenian origin.
"Of course, a man is free in his thoughts, but if he is holding a leading position, all his actions should be within the legal framework and should not contradict the legislation," noted Mancel.
"Under the French law, the local authorities should not cooperate with unrecognized entities," said the politician. "As part of my activity in the National Assembly of France, I sent a request in 2015 to the country's minister of internal affairs to clarify the situation regarding the "charters on cooperation" signed between local authorities of certain French cities and settlements of the separatist entity created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories."
"The French interior minister clarified the government's stance and provisions of the law, according to which France doesn't recognize the regime in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan," said Mancel.
According to Mancel, the minister said France has no relations with the people who call themselves "leaders", and any signed documents on cooperation between local authorities of French cities and the settlements in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh territory have no legal force.
Mancel said this official stance of the French government was included in a circular signed by the country's foreign and interior ministers July 2, 2015, and sent to all the regions for the French mayors to get familiarized with it.
"France has good relations with both countries - Azerbaijan and Armenia. France is a co-chairing country of the OSCE Minsk Group and has international commitments, but such an illegal activity of its local authorities is contrary to the country's stance on the conflict," he added.
"I admit that the French politics has some shortcomings, mistakes. This is a result of the Armenian lobby's influence on the French politicians," he further said.
Mancel added that France should take a more active stance in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, use its influence on Armenia, force it to negotiate, demand it to fulfil the UN Security Council's resolutions, and first of all, to withdraw from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
