Fifth Republic on the verge of half-life
French adventure on shaky Armenian ground

ANALYTICS  14 April 2023 - 13:15

Once again, France has not surprised us. And it would be strange indeed if it did not react to aggravation which happened recently on the conditional Armenian-Azerbaijani border. But perhaps it would have been even stranger if it had reacted impartially.

On April 12, the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement, which among other things said: "Respect for the territorial integrity of Armenia and the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from their positions on the Armenian side of the contact line are essential to prevent future incidents and preserve the basis for lasting peace in the region."

As we can see, the emphasis shifted in the "right" direction. Paris is actually declaring Azerbaijan as a) an aggressor, which has seized the territory of another state, and b) a party responsible for any future escalations in the region.

The clumsy bias of the French state and its diplomacy has again revealed itself in the instant determination of the culprit, without a proper investigation, and without even releasing a report of the EU observer mission. The latter, incidentally, never observed anything, refusing to go to the scene of the incident. Such haste suggests that the statement was drafted in advance in order to optimise the working hours of the staff of the French foreign ministry.

But let us not be quick to judge. We will only note that the French were at least well aware that, firstly, the fire was first opened by the Armenian side and, secondly, that before the delimitation and demarcation of borders, the village of Dygh cannot be considered Armenian territory, as the French Foreign Ministry points out. The village may be administratively indicated only after Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Common sense would seem to suggest that the French have an obligation to help the Armenians sort this out. After all, they, the French, recognise Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. Even President Macron, albeit grudgingly, confirmed this at a meeting with young people in the Armenian community in Paris.

However, in reality, it is the other way around. Despite the fact that the French have always recognized Azerbaijan's sovereignty, Paris has never demanded from Yerevan to withdraw its troops from the territory of Azerbaijan during its co-chairmanship in the OSCE Minsk Group. And now, after Azerbaijan has returned its lands by force of arms and diplomacy, France continues doing its best to impede the conclusion of the peace treaty and reintegration of the Karabakh Armenian community with Azerbaijan.

As we can see, France is demonstrating a consistently destructive approach to the issue of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations. Meanwhile, the stability inside France itself is becoming a less obvious phenomenon year by year. Experiencing a number of problems, it should have been more closely concerned with them after all. Corsica issue, for example, which we have already written about. Though Napoleon was born in Corsica, France did not manage to tame the proud people inhabiting this island. The idea of independence will grow stronger every year here, all the more so in the face of growing social problems. And then there is Occitania. And then there is Brittany...

Things are not all right for the French in the overseas territories either. The islands of Mayotte and New Caledonia are at the forefront of the Polynesian struggle against French neo-colonialism. By the way, the latter, represented by the Kanak Socialist Front of National Liberation, sent a delegation to the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Baku as recently as March.

There is another interesting story about overseas territories. The French nuclear doctrine only protects the European part of the country and does not extend the nuclear umbrella to its overseas territories. This could somehow be explained except for one small detail - France has conducted tests in its overseas territories. So the devil's logic is applicable - why spend money to protect people from the deadly atom when we have already irradiated them?

According to the authors of the study, reporters from the French investigative journalism website Disclose, as well as experts from the American University of Princeton and the British firm Interpret, radioactive fallout from a decade (1966 - 1974) of atmospheric testing in the Polynesian Islands, could affect about 110 thousand people, that is, all the then population of Tahiti and neighboring Leeward Islands, including 80 thousand residents of the main city of Tahiti - Papeete.

Since 1974, France has phased out atmospheric testing and limited itself only to underground testing, only to give up nuclear testing completely in 1996. But, as the saying goes, "things are going from bad to worse". A mishandled explosion on Mururoa Atoll in 1979 created a fault in the depths of the atoll which, if it spreads further, threatens to turn the Pacific Ocean into a giant reservoir of nuclear waste. Heaven forbid, of course, but should that happen, the Fifth Republic would get into a row not only with the Polynesians but - far more dangerously - with all major countries, which could result in France losing its superpower status. We, therefore, urge the French government to divert the budget allocated for the development of science-intensive, ultra-modern weapons to prevent this catastrophe.

In other words, France has more than enough problems. We are not yet talking about social ills such as the growing number of migrants and their slow integration, Islamophobia, inflation, the pension crisis, etc. We do not yet discuss the problems prevailing in the French army, where the draft was cancelled back in 1996 for fear of the domination of migrants. Meanwhile, the "blue blood" is rapidly losing passion...

So maybe in the face of such existential threats, it is time to stop embarking on such highly dubious adventures, in such crazy ones as support for an aggressor country in the far away Caucasus? In the very Caucasus where you Frenchmen have no experience of constructive cooperation. Monsieur, you are treading on shaky ground!

Caliber.Az