BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 5. The exploitation
of the International Organization of the Francophonie (IOF), an
organization with a mandate in cultural-humanitarian cooperation
among the member states, by Armenia with the open instigation and
support of France is utterly regretful, said the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Trend reports.
“With the purpose of inclusion of certain provisions targeting
Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity into the outcome
document of an organization, to which Azerbaijan is not a member,
France has openly abused its chairmanship status, brazenly violated
the universally established practice with respect to the
preparation of documents within multilateral formats and elementary
rules of conducting multilateral negotiations.
As a result, the provisions that Armenia claims as adopted at the
IOF Summit, in fact, did not get consensus, and reservations were
recorded with respect to these provisions.
As a consequence, Armenia’s attempts to impose its fake narratives
on the international community have failed even in the format where
Azerbaijan is not a member, and despite the open support of
France.
The said provisions, which were included in the document in gross
violation of the decision-making rules of an organization that is
supposed to deal with cultural-humanitarian issues, have no
political and legal value, regardless of Armenia’s attempts to
present this as a “diplomatic victory.”
Instead, the developments within the framework of the OIF should be
considered as yet another manifestation of Armenia’s intention to
target the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan at
every possible opportunity, and France’s exploitation of Armenia
for its narrow interests.
Azerbaijan expresses its gratitude to those OIF member states that
despite open threats and blackmails of France, demonstrated
unwavering adherence to international law and the humanitarian
mandate of the OIF, and firmly stood against the steps targeting
Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and undermining
the normalization process.
Azerbaijan urges Armenia to abandon such provocative steps and
demonstrate political will and responsibility to address remaining
impediments in the way of bringing the normalization process to its
logical conclusion, first and foremost, by amending the provisions
in its constitution and other legislative acts containing
territorial claim against Azerbaijan.
The Armenian side should make a choice whether to proceed down the
road towards finalization of the normalization process or continue
confrontation in all directions. Azerbaijan is committed to the
normalization process it has initiated and continues to
consistently take forward with a sense of political wisdom and
responsibility,” the statement reads.
MFA condemns France, Armenia for misusing IOF against Azerbaijan
