Azerbaijan's FM accuses France, EU mission of aggravating peace efforts with Armenia Slams impunity for war criminals

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has said that France's zeal during positive steps on the Azerbaijani-Armenian settlement contributes to the aggravation of the problem.

"After the meeting held on the initiative of Scholz, the importance of the development of the peace process was noted, an agreement was reached. But immediately after was the statement of the French President, and then the visit of the defence minister of this country to Armenia, his provocative statements. Azerbaijan's restoration of its territorial integrity and sovereignty worries many structures," APA quotes Bayramov as saying in a conversation with journalists.

Bayramov went on to say that no agreements have been reached over the past 5 months. Despite this, peace and tranquillity reigned on the border with Armenia during this period.

"This period of almost 5 months was the calmest period on the conditional border between Azerbaijan and Armenia. If we consider this period, we will see that some circles were concerned about it and are doing their best to change the situation and create tension,” he added.

Then, commenting on the EU mission that is on duty on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, the minister said that the actions of the EU mission on the border, the arrival of various Western diplomats to the border in the absence of any tension on it - all this led to the fact that this issue was constantly on the agenda and it was presented as tension.

"An example of this is the violation of the Azerbaijani border from the control zone of this mission and then the wounding of our serviceman by a sniper shot without any reason."

Moreover, commenting on an atmosphere of impunity reigning in Armenia, Bayramov said: "The fact that war criminals have not been brought to justice for many years has created an atmosphere of impunity in Armenia. Recently, some war criminals have been brought to criminal responsibility, including the perpetrators of the Khojaly offence. Work in this direction continues."