Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 20
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
French politicians speculating on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue want to seduce the voters of the Armenian origin, Nathalie Goulet, French senator and vice-chair of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told Trend Apr. 20.
“Never trust the politicians when they are campaigning in France,” she said, commenting on the interviews of the presidential candidates Francois Fillon and Marine Le Pen, where they spoke against Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not known in France, where the population has such big issues as employment, economy and security, she said.
Some statements of the French presidential candidates shouldn’t be taken seriously, Goulet added.
“Wait for the next president and have trust in your friends in France to support territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” she noted. “In one word, keep calm and wait for the election results.”
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.