Baku, Azerbaijan, July 6
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
France must make Armenia respect international law, said an article entitled “Zahra: New victim of conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia - Yerevan is guilty” published in the French Mediapart newspaper July 6.
After many years of total indifference of the international community, the time has come for France to play an important role in the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, wrote Henri Fourcadis, the author of the article.
In particular, France, the co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, must be able to make Armenia respect international law, said the article.
France must finally condemn Armenia for its disgusting policy in the South Caucasus region, the article noted.
The author went on to add that Armenia, which continues provocations, is directly responsible for the death of the 2-year-old Azerbaijani girl and her grandmother.
On July 4 at about 20:40 (GMT+4 hours), the Armenian armed forces, using 82-mm and 120-mm mortars and grenade launchers, shelled the Alkhanly village of Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli district.
As a result of this provocation, the residents of the village Sahiba Allahverdiyeva, 50, and Zahra Guliyeva, 2, were killed. Salminaz Guliyeva, 52, who got wounded, was taken to the hospital and was operated on.
This is the continuation of Yerevan’s obvious policy of aggression and inhuman treatment of almost 4,000 Azerbaijani prisoners who were tortured, and many of whom have already died, the article said.
Fourcadis noted in his article that Armenia continues to act with impunity, despite international law.
Despite the OSCE’s condemnation, Yerevan continues to “armenize” the Nagorno-Karabakh region by ethnical cleansing, scrupulously eradicating all the traces of Azerbaijani heritage in the region, said the article.
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.