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France has a destructive policy in Azerbaijan-Armenian peace process

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Modern Diplomacy
21 Nov 2022 11:15
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French President Emmanuel Macron has had destructive policies toward a possible peaceful resolution between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

French President Emmanuel Macron (AFP)

The French Senate passed a resolution on November 15 asking for sanctions against Azerbaijan and the recognition of the "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic," according to Modern Diplomacy. The Senate questioned the geographical integrity of Azerbaijan, in defiance of international law, principles, and the internationally-adopted resolutions.

It is already worth noting, according to Modern Diplomacy, that the Senate had already taken a biased stance toward the most recent escalation of armed conflict between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in September and demanded that the Azerbaijani troops consider leaving what the Senate referred to as "Armenian territory," despite the fact that there had been no official demarcation of the border.

According to the report, the resolution, which was almost passed unanimously by the French senate, did not obligate the French government to put it into effect, but it impeded the peace talks for a number of reasons.

Previously, the report noted, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Azerbaijan of waging a war in 2020 to reclaim the Karabakh region, and then having launched "offensives" on the Armenia-Azerbaijan state boundary in mid-September of this year.

Macron's statement was rebutted by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as it was considered unacceptable, especially given the history of good relations between his country and previous Presidents in France. Aliyev responded with “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” adding that “the current French leadership has effectively crossed out all this.”

Aliyev also noted that the Armenian diaspora had a strong effect in the formation of France's policies regarding the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. That effect created a lasting bias in French foreign policy that extends even today. Moreover, despite headway having been made between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the peace talks, whereby they both agreed to recognize each other's territorial integrity, France took a strong stance against Azerbaijan calling Nagorno-Karabakh a "disputed territory" a week after the summit between Yerevan and Baku.

France's policy, according to Modern Diplomacy, serves to embolden radical nationalist groups in Armenia so that they would take a stance against the government and more actively oppose the peace talks with Azerbaijan. It seems that France is interested in having the conflict between the two persist in one form or other.

At the Prague summit on October 6, President Charles Michel and Macron himself were present at the European Union Council for the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two conflicting countries were ready to sign, the report noted, on the recognition of each other’s territorial integrity in line with the Charter of the United Nations and Alma Ata declaration of 1991. France, by adopting resolutions calling for the recognition of the "Nagorno Karabakh Republic" is actively disputing Baku's sovereignty over the region.