Macron was shown the door Afterword to Aliyev's speech in Astana

The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev's speech at the CIS Heads of State Council in Astana, devoted to the crucial aspects of the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations in the post-conflict period, was rich in theses and proposals. First of all, the president informed the participants of the meeting about the current situation in the region, noting the ongoing provocations of the Armenian side on the border with Azerbaijan, and then gave a rather harsh response to French President Emmanuel Macron's defamatory accusations against Azerbaijan and Russia, which he made in an interview on French television.

First of all, Ilham Aliyev turned the attention of the meeting participants to the basic thesis, on which the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations should be built. The president pointed out that the Karabakh conflict had been resolved by Azerbaijan in accordance with the rules and regulations of international law, i.e. on an absolutely legal basis.

"Since the conflict has been resolved and Azerbaijan has resolved it itself in accordance with international law, the UN Charter, including Article 51 of the UN Charter, which implies that every country has the right to self-defence, the conflict is considered resolved," Ilham Aliyev said.

This message of the Azerbaijani president is addressed not only to ardent supporters of Armenian separatism, in particular to France, represented by President Macron but to the international community as a whole. It is therefore quite logical that the head of state recalled the September hostilities perpetrated by the Armenian side on the notional border with Azerbaijan and the consequences of mine and sniper terror, stating concrete facts.

"Since the end of the Second Karabakh War, more than 250 citizens of Azerbaijan have either been killed or seriously maimed as a result of mines planted mainly during the occupation. But at the same time, we have found 1,400 Armenian-made anti-personnel mines, which were laid in 2021 near the border with the Lachin region. Roads leading from one Azerbaijani military position to another were also mined. The clashes lasted, the active phase lasted for a maximum of eight hours," the president said.

Azerbaijan had no intention of occupying Armenian territory, as some may believe, Aliyev stressed. "Not a single town, not a single village has been occupied. As a result of the mediation activities of the Russian side, I would like to emphasize that it was the Russian side that proposed a ceasefire, and some attribute this to other countries, which is completely unfounded. As a result of the mediation activities of the Russian side, as I have already said, the hostilities were stopped," the Azerbaijani leader said, highlighting the active mediation activities of Russia.

This is fair, because Baku, as well as Moscow, unlike Yerevan, take the trilateral statements of 2020 and 2021 as the basis for negotiations, and respectively, stick to all the clauses of their commitments.

"Another point I would like to note is that the trilateral declaration was adopted in November 2020 with the mediation of the Russian Federation. Azerbaijan is fulfilling all its points, including providing unimpeded access from Armenia to Karabakh. Armenia is not implementing its part of the declaration. Namely, it is not providing unhindered access from the main part of Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which is its legal obligation, and it has still not withdrawn Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijani territory. We have been patient so far, but our patience is not infinite. If these two important points of the trilateral statement of November 2020 are not met, we will have no other choice but to act adequately," Ilham Aliyev said, thus sending a tough message to Armenia and its Western patrons, who do not abandon attempts to cut into the negotiation process solely to push forward the interests of Armenia.

This is precisely the mission that France, which has become much more active in the current post-conflict period, is trying to pursue persistently but so far in vain. There is, however, an important nuance here. Despite Paris' political tricks to lobby for Armenia's interests in international forums, its efforts have repeatedly failed. For example, during the recent meeting of the heads of Azerbaijan and Armenia with French President and EU Council President Charles Michel in Prague, Aliyev resolutely defended his national interests by preventing the deployment of an EU mission to Azerbaijani territory. At the Astana summit, the Azerbaijani president provided a clear explanation.

"At a meeting in Prague, after many hours of negotiations, it was decided to send a 40-member EU civilian mission to Armenian territory near the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. We subsequently learned that the number would be 50. They will stay there for at least two months and the purpose of this mission, as we see it and that is why we agreed to it, is to help the sides to draw the border, and to identify issues related to delimitation. There was an attempt to send this mission to the Azerbaijani side as well, but it was firmly rejected by us. Therefore, the mission will be located in Armenia, in the area of responsibility of the CSTO," Ilham Aliyev said, emphasizing the provocative statements made by President Macron after the Prague meeting.

"Despite Azerbaijan's consent to hold a quadrilateral meeting, including the French president, although France has nothing to do with Azerbaijani-Armenian relations, as a co-chair of the Minsk Group, France was mandated to carry out a mediation mission, but as the Karabakh conflict is resolved and there is no need for the Minsk Group, moreover these services, if I may say so, were a disservice, as I said, the Minsk Group did nothing, not a single centimeter of our territory was liberated. So, despite the goodwill shown by Azerbaijan, just one week after the Prague meeting the French president made insulting, unacceptable, false, and provocative statements. They are available in the press, and everyone can see them. In these statements he accused Azerbaijan of waging a horrible war, thus manipulating the facts, and tried to mislead the French and world community", President Aliyev said, drawing attention to two important facts.

First, he noted that Azerbaijan waged war on its internationally recognized territory, and Karabakh is recognized by the world as part of Azerbaijan. Secondly, Azerbaijan used the right to self-defence and restored its territorial integrity by force.

And now the fact that Paris has allowed Armenia to violate international law for all the long years of its occupation of Azerbaijani territories (ignoring the implementation of four UN Security Council resolutions and those of other organisations) and that even now, in the post-conflict period, it supports its policy of terror (France, for example) casts doubt on the desire of Europe to actually promote the normalisation of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and the establishment of lasting peace in the region.

It is obvious that Paris and Brussels while claiming a mediating role in resolving Baku-Yerevan relations, are hoping to minimise Moscow's efforts in this regard and to force it out of the negotiation process. And this is most likely done in order to promote European interests in the region, as well as to use Armenia in parallel as a convenient bridgehead and fortified outpost. This is probably the reason why tendentious statements to the Russian Federation, such as "Russia has played the Azerbaijani game", even if they do not sound politically correct, are entirely consistent with the European vision of future processes in the South Caucasus region.

As for Baku's position, as President Aliyev has said, Azerbaijan strongly condemns the provocative statements, rejects and does not see any possibility for Paris to play any role in the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations under such an attitude of the French government.

This probably means that Azerbaijan will completely exclude the possibility of France's participation in the subsequent negotiations with Armenia and will cut off any attempts by Paris to interfere in the process. All the more so because Baku has many serious reasons based on real facts, which Aliyev also did not ignore. He also reminded that during the Second Karabakh War, the French Foreign Ministry made false anti-Azerbaijani statements, and the French Senate and the lower house of Parliament passed provocative resolutions on Karabakh. Something similar is being prepared by the French Senate in November.

"Further, the Azerbaijani embassy in Paris was attacked twice. And after the first attack, the President of France promised me in a telephone conversation that measures would be taken to prevent this from happening again. But that turned out to be untrue, to put it mildly. The guards that were posted in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy after the first act of vandalism and attempted break-in were removed. This was most likely agreed with the Armenian side. And as soon as the guards were removed, there was a second attempt to break through, there were insulting inscriptions, there were crowds of rampaging radicals who attacked the Azerbaijani Embassy, and it is categorically unacceptable," Aliyev said, justifying all these actions as a violation of all diplomatic conventions.

As we can see, the key points clearly highlighted by the head of the Azerbaijani state in Astana once again solidified the main theses of Baku in its relations with Armenia, and in parallel let Paris know that its pro-Armenian policy will be permanently suppressed by all available diplomatic tools, which we will use in any international arena, defending the just position of Azerbaijan, despite the political tricks of the Macron's administration.