BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 18. The Azerbaijani Parliament Committee on International Relations and Interparliamentary Relations has adopted a statement regarding the anti-Azerbaijani resolution of the French Senate. Trend reports, referring to the Azerbaijani Parliament Committee.
The statement reads: "In connection with the biased, one-sided, and unjustified resolution adopted by the Senate of the French Republic on January 17, 2024, at the initiative of the leaders of the Armenian lobby operating in France and French officials and politicians under their influence, the Committee of the Azerbaijani Parliament on International Relations and Interparliamentary Ties declares the following:
In recent years, the political circles of the French Republic, including the Senate and the National Assembly, on the basis of instructions received directly from the Elysee Palace, have intensified their openly racist, Azerbaijanaphobic, and Islamaphobic activities and continue to take unjust steps against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, demonstrating open disrespect for the norms and principles of international law.
Relations between the two countries are at the lowest level in history and can be considered essentially suspended due to the French Government's anti-Azerbaijani policy, including the resolutions adopted against our country in both chambers of the French Parliament so far;
Although respect for the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders is both a multilateral and bilateral international obligation of the French side, France has questioned the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country in the draft resolutions it has initiated both domestically and in international organizations.
The non-adoption of numerous draft resolutions and decisions against Azerbaijan put forward by France within the framework of the UN Security Council and the European Union is related to the successful foreign policy of the Azerbaijani state, as well as a fair assessment of the biased initiatives and steps of France in these organizations;
One of the directions of France's illegal activities against Azerbaijan was also unsuccessful intelligence work. Two employees of the embassy of this country in Baku were declared "persona non grata" (undesirable persons) by the Azerbaijani government for activities that did not correspond to their diplomatic status and contradicted the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961;
The destructive and provocative steps of the French government, as well as the Senate and the National Assembly, serve to hinder the realization of the peace agenda between Azerbaijan and Armenia and aggravate the situation in the South Caucasus region.
The fact that in recent months there has been complete calm and no conflict on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conditional border apparently worries the French side. France is trying in various ways to prevent the work on the conclusion of a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
By selling arms and ammunition to Armenia, France hinders the normalization of relations with Azerbaijan and encourages the revanchist forces in Armenia to wage a new war.
One of the main reasons for the almost 30-year absence of a settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, which has threatened the security of the South Caucasus region and Europe as a whole and has already made history through Azerbaijan's determined efforts, is the desire of some states that acted as international mediators in the negotiation process, in particular France, to preserve the status quo based on Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani lands;
The French Senate has never called on Armenia to fulfill its international obligations under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols, the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of November 16, 1972, and the Declaration on the Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage of October 17, 2003, knowing that Armenia, which has kept Azerbaijani lands under occupation for almost 30 years, has flagrantly violated these conventions and the declaration.
France, which remains silent about the forced mass eviction of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis living on the territory of present-day Armenia from their native lands and does not call for the restoration of their right of return, continues to adhere to a policy of double standards and seeks in every possible way to accommodate Armenians on the territory of Azerbaijan.
France, which speaks of protecting cultural heritage, has not prevented the desecration of the statue of Khurshidbanu Natavan, a prominent poet, artist, educator, and philanthropist known as a champion of freedom and women's rights, in Evian-les-Bains, and has yet to find and punish those who committed this shameful act.
Will be updated.
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