BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 1
Trend:
The statement made on September 30 by French President Emmanuel Macron on the latest developments within the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict casts great doubt on France's function as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijani Center for International Relations Analysis Farid Shafiyev said.
Shafiyev was commenting on the latest statement of the French president and the biased position of a number of Western media outlets, Trend reports on Oct. 1.
"Unfortunately, Macron's statement demonstrates that in this difficult and tense period, France supports Armenia's position,” chairman of the board added.
“The French relevant official circles must explain the position with which this country will continue its activity as a mediator of the OSCE Minsk Group,” Shafiyev said. “Moreover, a number of Western media outlets, including BBC, Reuters, Guardian, have been recently spreading fictitious information, not confirmed by any reliable sources, about the alleged arrival of mercenaries from Syria to Azerbaijan.”
“Unfortunately, some Western media outlets have been demonstrating a similar biased position towards Azerbaijan for over a century,” the chairman of the board said. “During the period of tsarist Russia when the Western media covered the clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in 1905, Islamophobic and Turkophobic tendencies were observed in their coverage of these events.”
“The representatives of the Western media outlets are well aware that Azerbaijan is a secular country,” Shafiyev said. “Azerbaijan is closely cooperating with the US and other countries in the fight against terror, making a great contribution to strengthening international security.”
“Such a biased position against Azerbaijan, when the country, relying on international law, conducts the operations to liberate its occupied lands, casts doubt on the activity, professionalism and objectivity of the Western institutions, including the media outlets," chairman of the board said.
“Another issue is that a number of international structures and countries are calling for the resumption of the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Shafiyev stressed.
"There is such a question,” Shafiyev added. “What kind of resumption of negotiations can we talk about? Armenia puts forward a demand to change the format of the negotiation process which is held within the OSCE Minsk Group, rejects the agreed Madrid principles that have been discussed for more than 10 years. Therefore, the Armenian leadership bears responsibility for the current tense situation."
