BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 25
Trend:
The Association of Azerbaijan’s Friends in France condemned the provocative visit of the head of Ile-de-France region, the Republican Party candidate in the upcoming presidential election Valérie Pécresse, made on December 22 to the Azerbaijani Khankandi city, Trend reports referring to the association’s statement.
"This city is recognized by international organizations as part of the territory of Azerbaijan, and visits to these lands without the permission of the Azerbaijani authorities are unacceptable," the statement said. "By the visit to Karabakh, Pécresse violated the sovereignty of Azerbaijan, committed a provocation and deprived herself of the right to participate in peacekeeping activities."
"Azerbaijan is a secular country, like France. Therefore, it’s not clear why Pécresse's campaign statements are aimed at exaggerating the so-called religious threat against Eastern Christians?! In Azerbaijan, which has been visited by the Pope several times in recent years, Christians live in peace and tranquility," the authors noted.
The Karabakh conflict between the two states was of an exclusively territorial nature. Over the course of 30 years, Armenia, contrary to the condemnation of the UN Security Council, has occupied almost 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan by military way, reminded the association.
According to the statement, the legal liberation of the occupied territories after the restoration of the ceasefire in 2020 should be assessed as a victory of international law, just as in the case of France's liberation of Alsace-Lorraine from German occupation in 1918.
"France and its representatives must demonstrate impartiality, respecting elementary norms of international law, in order to strive for a sustainable peace," the association stated.