BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 24. Some states and organizations are still unable to accept the new reality created by Azerbaijan in South Caucasus after the Second Karabakh War and France ranks first among them, Trend reports.
France expressing open support for Armenia both during the Second Karabakh War and in the post-war period tried to put political pressure on Azerbaijan, to influence processes in South Caucasus and dictate its terms, but this plan failed. Seeing the increased role of the EU and Russia in the Azerbaijani-Armenian peace process, French authorities shifted their offensive diplomacy against Azerbaijan into a more aggressive and dynamic phase, starting to sow the seeds of discord in the negotiation process.
French President Emmanuel Macron's demonstration of his anti-Azerbaijani stance a few days ago in an interview with France 2 television channel revealed the country's plans for the Azerbaijani-Armenian peace process and goals for the future in South Caucasus. During the interview Macron called Karabakh 'a disputed territory' and said 'Armenia will not be left alone'. Going even further, the French President didn't hesitate to accuse Azerbaijan of a 'terrible war' and 'occupation'. Naturally, Macron's unsubstantiated accusations cannot but arouse indignation among Azerbaijan's political leadership and public.
“Azerbaijan showed goodwill nonetheless and allowed the French President to participate in this meeting. As for the participation of the President of the European Council, as you know, several trilateral meetings have already been held in Brussels and, in principle, we have always supported the efforts of the European Union towards the normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations. Despite the goodwill shown by Azerbaijan, just a week after the meeting in Prague, the President of France made insulting, unacceptable, false and provocative statements. They are available in the media and everyone can see them. In these statements, he accused Azerbaijan of engaging in a horrific war, thereby manipulating the facts, trying to mislead the French and world public. Azerbaijan waged war on its internationally recognized territory. Karabakh is recognized by the whole world as a part of Azerbaijan. We exercised our right to self-defense and restored our territorial integrity by force,” President Ilham Aliyev said.
Speaking about the anti-Azerbaijani policy of France, President Ilham Aliyev noted that French Foreign Minister had also made false anti-Azerbaijani statements.
“French Senate and the lower house of their parliament adopted resolutions recognizing the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh although it wasn’t recognized even by Armenia. We are aware that another anti-Azerbaijan resolution is being prepared in the French Senate in mid-November," President Ilham Aliyev said.
President Ilham Aliyev reminded during his speech about relations between Azerbaijan and France in previous periods.
"Therefore, unfortunately, the current French leadership, unlike the previous ones – I had the opportunity to communicate quite closely with President Chirac, President Sarkozy and President Hollande, and our relations were quite balanced, quite friendly, and we always perceived the activities of previous French presidents, despite, of course, a certain factor of the Armenian diaspora in France, as balanced. However, the current French leadership has effectively crossed out all this. Therefore, I wanted to inform colleagues about this situation,” Head of state said.
The latest processes show that Macron's government, unlike the former French presidents, insists on changing France's policy towards the South Caucasus, and in particular, burning bridges with Azerbaijan. The French political elite intends to change its policy towards Azerbaijan and to speak with dictation, while the country is silencing the opposite side with its reasoned answers against the background of this rhetoric. The response of the Azerbaijani President is in line with the policy of the French authorities towards the country. The Head of Azerbaijani state declares that regardless of France's plans in the South Caucasus, the country won't change its policy towards the region and Karabakh.
What are Azerbaijan's goals regarding the region and Karabakh?
- Azerbaijan strives to ensure joint co-existence, guaranteeing the security of Armenian population in Karabakh;
- Azerbaijan is interested in creating the Zangazur corridor and unblocking all transport and communication lines in the region as a whole;
- Azerbaijan strives for long-term peace and stability in South Caucasus and cooperates with all global players interested in stability.
There are forces on the 'old continent' that support long-term peace and stability in the South Caucasus and Azerbaijan's peacekeeping policy, but France is not one of them.
What are Paris's objectives regarding South Caucasus?
- The current French authorities aren't interested in a complete settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, so as not to lose the opportunity to influence South Caucasus;
- France wants to make the most of the 'Armenian card' in the final peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, to gain an opportunity to influence South Caucasus;
- France knows that it will not be able to hinder the peace agreement at the final stage, so it seeks to keep the 'Armenian card' in Karabakh 'open', to keep the theses about the rights of Armenians there on the agenda in order not to lose the opportunity to influence the region even after the conclusion of the peace agreement. The 'Karabakh game' planned by France has been exposed since Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's speech at a meeting with Macron in France when he put forward the thesis; Azerbaijan must talk to the Karabakh Armenians'.
As can be seen, the positions of Azerbaijan and France regarding South Caucasus and Armenian-Azerbaijani relations are quite different. Azerbaijan wants peace, while France wants to drag out negotiations and gain leverage in the region. France not only doesn't want peace but even plans military support to Armenia to aggravate the situation in the region and create a new hotbed of conflict.
How can France be a fair mediator in the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan in this situation? Naturally, French authorities' sympathy for the Armenian lobby, games around the 700,000 Armenian voters living in the country will not allow President Macron to demonstrate a fair position regarding Azerbaijani-Armenian relations.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev commented on Macron's biased statement saying that "France has nothing to do with the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia", once again making it clear that Azerbaijan doesn't need help, mediation, "fair" position of France. France, in turn, should respect the position of Azerbaijan and not try to speak to the country with threats and pressure.