Azerbaijan's State Security Service deals a blow to the French espionage
Baku stuns Macron again

ANALYTICS  27 December 2023 - 15:28

As we have already reported, yesterday the French Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Anne Boillon, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry of our country, where she was informed that two employees of the French diplomatic mission have been declared persona non grata by the Azerbaijani government for activities incompatible with their diplomatic status and in violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. They were ordered to leave Azerbaijan's territory within 48 hours, and the French ambassador received a note from the Foreign Ministry.

If we deviate from the language of protocol, we are dealing with the exposure and defeat of the French spy network, which was operating in our country under the supervision of intelligence officers under diplomatic cover. And here we should pay tribute to the professionalism of our State Security Service. It worked perfectly and managed to catch one of the key figures of the illegal French residence in Azerbaijan. After all, it is not enough just to get on the trail of spies with diplomatic passports, it is also necessary to provide iron-clad evidence of their involvement in espionage against the host country. The employees of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan have succeeded in this task, and now the exposed fake diplomats will have to leave the territory of our country. Otherwise, Azerbaijan will refuse to consider them "diplomats", which means that the Penal Code will come into force, their diplomatic immunity will be removed and they will become subject to Azerbaijani law. We hope that Madame Boillon and the leadership of the French security services are wise enough not to push the situation so far. After all, the French side has been given 48 hours, and after that, Baku will not be obliged to give an account of its actions.

In general, the exposure of the French intelligence network in Azerbaijan is a continuation of the ongoing series of failures of the Directorate General for External Security (DGSE), France's foreign intelligence service. Bernard Emie, who was recently sacked by President Macron, ended up having to pay for it personally.

Previously, the French had allowed a series of major failures in Africa, which led them to be ousted from Niger, Mali, Gabon and Burkina Faso. In the latter, let's not forget, four French citizens, identified as having worked for the DGSE, have been arrested and accused of spying. But make no mistake, the French secret services have had some "successes". In early December, the "neutralisation" of "agents" from Azerbaijan was reported by media close to the French security services. And not just anywhere, but in the French empire's most sensitive area, New Caledonia, which is trying to ditch the shackles of French neo-colonialism. And although the 'spies' turned out to be just two journalists from the state news agency Azertag, the report at least slightly boosted the bruised ego of the Elysee Palace master. But the matter did not go beyond the accusations of a biased media. Paris seems to have realised the absurdity of the version put forward.

Today, Macron has every reason to be angry and resentful towards Azerbaijan and Ilham Aliyev personally. After all, Paris's imperial self-confidence thought it could easily handle a small South Caucasian country many French couldn't find on a map. But something went wrong: French intelligence simply could not obtain or analyse information about modern Azerbaijan and its counter-intelligence resources.

As a result, having lost the French peace in Africa, Paris was unable to build one in the South Caucasus precisely because of the sharp rebuff from Baku. The same Baku that all French authorities, executive and legislative, played against. Numerous threats and resolutions in favour of Armenian separatism on the territory of Azerbaijan remained an empty sound and a piece of paper. The French were powerless in the United Nations, where their efforts to pressure Azerbaijan were in vain.

Moreover, we cannot ignore France's "little sister" Armenia. Its policy of blindly following Paris has also failed. Azerbaijan's actions have made it clear to Yerevan that it should not have hoped for any help from France. The same goes for Washington, whose lobbyists, in the heat of the moment, tried to talk to Baku in the language of menace. Azerbaijan responded in kind. As a result, it was Washington who had to resolve the unpleasant situation and send James O'Brien to our country.

It is time for Yerevan to sit down at the negotiating table with Baku and stop looking for help from Paris, Brussels and Washington. Let us negotiate directly. Particularly since we sometimes manage to do it, as the joint declaration of December 7 shows. After all, neither we nor the Armenians will run away from geography. It is better, as they say, to look each other in the eye at the negotiating table than through a sniper's scope. After all, we are the ones who will die, not the citizens of France, who by and large do not care about Armenians, the main thing for them is to enter our region, even at the cost of unleashing another conflict. Which, by the way, they have so far failed to do, thanks to Azerbaijan, which has dealt a blow to the egos of Macron, Colonna, and Hidalgo, not to mention the leadership of the DGSE...

Caliber.Az