Another provocation against Azerbaijan at Francophonie summit Role of France in regional instability  

An anti-Azerbaijan resolution has been adopted at the 19th Francophonie Summit in Paris. Its full title is "Resolution on Crisis Situations in the Francophone Space, Overcoming Them, and Strengthening Peace".

What an absurd! Armenia has never been a francophone region officially. Moreover, Armenia has never been a colony of France, officially. Furthermore, France faces big problems with its colonies, where discontent with France’s policy is brewing and being harshly suppressed. The Francophonie's attempt to intervene in the ongoing situation between Baku and Yerevan is absurd. It is particularly laughable to witness the "justification" for such intervention.

The resolution emphasises the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan and stresses the importance of respecting the territorial integrity of both countries based on the Almaty Declaration of 1991. They've come to recognize the principle of territorial integrity. This is remarkable hypocrisy from France!

After all, the French cities entered into sister city agreements with Azerbaijani settlements that were temporarily occupied by Armenia. The French current prime minister visited the Azerbaijani lands during the period of Armenian occupation. The candidates for the French presidency also visited these lands.   The French Senate passed resolutions immediately after Azerbaijan's victory in the 44-day second Karabakh war, calling on the government to "recognize the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and make this recognition a subject of negotiations for establishing long-term peace."

Moreover, the French Senate openly showed disrespect for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity! This was done after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed the trilateral statement on November 10, 2020. 

Essentially, it became clear even then that France led by Emmanuel Macron had embarked on a path to undermine any efforts for establishing long-term peace between Baku and Yerevan. Since then, we have repeatedly witnessed France’s willingness to engage in provocations in pursuit of this plan. As a result of a one-day anti-terror operation in the Karabakh region, Azerbaijan's sovereignty and territorial integrity were fully restored. This occurred despite the efforts of France and its president to obstruct the triumph of international law. This is evidenced by the joint Armenian-French attempt to condemn Azerbaijan in the United Nations Security Council.

Yerevan and Paris attempted to condemn Azerbaijan for demonstrating to the world how to restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Those who signed the resolution at the XIX Francophonie Summit were greatly concerned about this fact. This attempt was made in the UN Security Council whose resolutions, like those of the UN General Assembly, Armenia openly ignored. Is this hypocrisy? Sure. The actions of Yerevan and Paris are steeped in it. Amid discussions about the importance of peace between Azerbaijan and Yerevan, we are witnessing an aggressive slander campaign against Azerbaijan aimed at undermining the significance of Azerbaijan’s historical victories over Armenian occupiers. As a result of these victories, the Azerbaijani flag now flies in Shusha, Khankendi, Jabrayil, and across all the liberated Azerbaijani territories reclaimed at the cost of the lives of Azerbaijani martyrs.

It is evident that resolutions prioritizing the principle of territorial integrity should have been adopted earlier—such as in October 2018, during the International Francophonie Summit held in Yerevan. During that period, 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's territory was under Armenian occupation, and neither Pashinyan nor Macron mentioned respect for the territorial integrity of both countries based on the Almaty Declaration of 1991.

Given all this, and considering the open and increasing military and financial assistance which France renders to Armenia—contributing to the rise of revanchist sentiments in the occupying country—Azerbaijan will regard the resolution from the 19th Francophonie Summit as a useless piece of paper. At the same time, new evidence has emerged supporting Baku's demands to Yerevan regarding the importance of dismantling the OSCE Minsk Group, one of the co-chairs of which is France—a country facing a growing number of internal issues meddling in the South Caucasus region in an effort to provoke wars and tragedies.