Did Colonna's visit help calm tensions in South Caucasus? 
The result leaves much to be desired

ANALYTICS  29 April 2023 - 10:15

French Foreign and European Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna arrived in Baku on April 26 as part of her South Caucasus tour. In spite of the cold war between the two countries caused by France's biased position, Azerbaijan's President made a goodwill gesture by receiving the French foreign minister on April 27. Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov also met with Madame Colonna. The local media have already written a lot about these meetings.

Among the details worthy of particular attention is France's welcoming of the Azerbaijani peace initiative through Madame Colonna. This is actually the only positive news. Apparently, Paris has finally realised the costs of the clumsy behaviour of President Macron and his protégé Pashinyan, who issued an ultimatum last December saying "I'm not going to Brussels without Macron". As a result of this short-sighted step, France has actually made itself the party to disrupt the EU-brokered peace talks, which, among other things, irritated Brussels and Berlin, and, most importantly, completely lost the trust of Baku. But the Macron administration is not ready to finally destroy relations with Azerbaijan since there are issues of mutual economic interest between the countries.

It is possible that the hysterical actions of the French-Armenian tandem met with the displeasure of the White House, which is generally interested in an early signing of peace. And now it seems that Macron's entourage is trying to use the last chance. This is all the more likely because Armenia's provocations and protracted negotiations have had no effect on Azerbaijan's determination to defend its just position unilaterally. The Azerbaijani forces taking control of the Khalfali-Turshsu road in Karabakh and stopping a provocation on the notional Armenian-Azerbaijani border in April clearly demonstrated this. The opening of the checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin district coincided with the visit of Colonna and was undoubtedly a very unpleasant surprise for the French authorities.

However, the chief French diplomat hastened to condemn this "unilateralism" in a joint briefing with Jeyhun Bayramov. Despite the odiousness of this step, it was not a sensation, and fit perfectly into the logic of French behavior, confirmed by the statement of the Foreign Ministry on April 24, the day after the installation of the checkpoint in Lachin by Azerbaijan. Naturally, Colonna's rebuke was not left without a decent response from Jeyhun Bayramov, who parried that Azerbaijan takes unilateral action solely within its borders.

What is no less interesting is the helpless reaction of the French foreign minister to the question of an Azerbaijani journalist about the biased policy of Paris, which condemns Azerbaijan for lawful actions within its jurisdiction, and which has turned a blind eye to the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia for thirty years. Lacking any legal or ethical justification for her country's actions, the diplomat found nothing more effective than to repeat several times, stammering, "France is in favour of peace". It seems that the lauded French eloquence of the current generation of Parisian diplomats is not in vogue.

Among other topics related in one way or another to the post-conflict settlement, Colonna mentioned the demining of liberated territories (without naming them, of course), recalling the half-million-euro aid provided by France to Azerbaijan for this purpose. We are certainly grateful for any assistance that makes it possible to save at least one life. At the same time, it would be good if France, given its close relations with Armenia, could facilitate the presentation of all the maps of minefields to Azerbaijan.

Having completed her visit to Baku, the French Foreign Minister flew to Yerevan.

In short, it is all in the logic of the nature of the relationship between the two "sisters". First, during her visit to Armenia, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna could not avoid visiting the "Yerablur" military cemetery. There's nothing to say - it's her business, and the protocol doesn't prohibit visiting such places if that's what Madame Colonna wants. Another thing is how this visit and her boss's thoughts were presented by the press service of the French Foreign Ministry on its official Twitter account. "At Yerablour, one feels deep emotions at the sight of the hundreds of graves of young soldiers who have fallen in defence of their homeland. My thoughts are with their families and loved ones."

But, excuse me! What do the citizens of Armenia buried in Yerablur have to do with the defence of the homeland? After all, Azerbaijan did not attack Armenia. Armenian occupiers liquidated in Karabakh are buried there. And Karabakh, Madam Colonna, is not Armenia. You must be very careful what you say, otherwise, another Azerbaijani-French scandal could break out right after you leave Baku. You must agree that this is a failure for a diplomat.

Secondly, it is worth mentioning the creation of a military mission under the French Embassy in Yerevan. The intelligence officers of the EU observer mission have thus got another coordination centre. Or maybe it is the other way around - the French are not given much room in the mission, so they strengthen their military presence unilaterally?

Whatever the case, this act is, among other things, a symbolic one, showing support for Armenia's aggressive military policy. And yes, it is also a challenge to Moscow - France is reinforcing its military presence in Armenia, which has so far been considered an undivided fiefdom of Russia.

During her visit to Armenia, Colonna also visited the border town of Jermuk (Istisu), where the EU monitoring mission is deployed. Clearly, a representative of an EU member state had to visit this mission. However, given the ambiguous rhetoric of the chairman of the mission regarding Azerbaijan's allegedly aggressive plans, France's chief diplomat could have taken a symmetrical step in Azerbaijan to demonstrate goodwill in defusing tensions. For example, why couldn't she visit, if not the border checkpoint in Lachin region, then at least the section of the road where the rally of our environmental activists was held to be convinced of the unimpeded passage of civilians and humanitarian goods? By the way, yesterday the rally has been temporarily suspended and thus the distinguished guest from France, perhaps, deprived herself of the unique opportunity to witness the grand historic event, which put a period to the "miatsum" project.

But... we got carried away. Perhaps, it is not right to demand too much from a country that calls itself a sister of Armenia. We do not need sisterly love. We are for strong partnership relations but under conditions of respect for our sovereignty. Time will show whether France will be willing to adjust its policy so that such relations could exist and be strengthened. So far, the French diplomat's visit to the Caucasus rather suggests the opposite.

Caliber.Az