Public figures condemn France's anti-Azerbaijan smear campaign

The Azerbaijani public figures have applead to President Emmanuel Macron in response to a letter addressed him by the leaders of the political parties reperesented in the French Parliament.

“We regret that the open slanderous campaign carried out by various political forces of France against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani people recently has already crossed all the boundaries of morality,” Azertag reports citing the appeal.

“This unfair and biased campaign not only aggravates the attitude of the French public towards Azerbaijan, but also causes great concern among our people.

In fact, the real situation is as follows: Azerbaijan’s natural resources are being illegally exploited, and great damage is being made to the environment in the Azerbaijani territories, where the Russian peacekeepers are temporarily deployed.

War criminals, namely, ex-presidents of Armenia R. Kocharyan and S. Sargsyan, rather than ordinary Armenian people, benefited as a result of this illegal economic activity during the occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia.

Currently, our natural resources are exploited by Ruben Vardanyan, who is involved in money laundering, drug trafficking and illegal arms trade, Azerbaijan’s natural resources are transported to Armenia and from there to other countries.

We, as opposed to the French politicians who are conducting a slanderous campaign against Azerbaijan, refer to the facts. The reports and resolutions adopted by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe confirm the facts of illegal economic activity and the exploitation of natural resources in the Azerbaijani territories which were under occupation.

Azerbaijani specialists have repeatedly tried to enter these territories to conduct monitoring due to the deterioration of the environmental situation since early December, but the Armenians hampered this visit, as a result of which Azerbaijani citizens could not enter the Azerbaijani territory.

As a sign of protest, environmentalists and representatives of civil society in Azerbaijan are holding a rally in the internationally recognised sovereign territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, demanding to put an end to the illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan’s natural resources and environmental catastrophe,” the appeal said.

Ethnic cleansing

“According to the letter addressed to the French president on behalf of the leaders of the political forces represented in the French Parliament, indeed, ethnic cleansing was observed. However, contrary to their claims, the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide was carried out by the Armenians against the Azerbaijanis,” the appeal said.

This fact was indicated back in 1920 by French commissioner in the Caucasus Damien de Martel in a report dated July 20 to the then head of the French government, Foreign Minister Alexandre Millerand.

“As for military operations [seizure of Azerbaijani territories by Armenians], I received some data from witnesses who arrived from Armenia, which confirm the process of holding the operations. Armenian military formations surrounded 25 villages inhabited by over 40,000 Azerbaijanis in southern Yerevan in late June,” the report said.

“This population, living near the capital, has always been peaceful; this population was driven out to the Araz as a result of artillery fire and forced to leave their villages, which were immediately occupied by the Armenians. About 4,000 people, including women and children, were executed, they were drowned by the Armenian military,” the report said.

“The Azerbaijanis, who became victims of Armenia’s aggressive policy, were expelled from their historical lands, 20 per cent of the Azerbaijani territory recognised by the UN was occupied. As a result, more than a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people. The resolutions of the UN Security Council, for which France also voted, confirm these facts,” the appeal said.

History

One can read the works by famous French writer Alexandre Dumas "Journey to the Caucasus" to know about people living in Azerbaijani lands, their culture.

The spirit of the French Revolution eventually reached Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani people, as a result of which,  the first democratic republic - the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, was created in the Muslim East in May 1918, its independence was recognised in Paris.

One of the world leaders who voted for Azerbaijan's independence was French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau.

Today, all books related to the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic are stored in the library of the Centre for Russian, Caucasian and Central European Studies of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences of France, and we invite biased politicians to visit this library.

One of the first decisions of the Azerbaijani parliament was that, starting from the 1919-1920 academic year, hundreds of young Azerbaijanis were sent to prestigious universities in foreign countries to study at the expense of the government, most of them were sent to France.

The participation of Azerbaijanis in the French resistance movement is one of the glorious and unforgettable pages in the Azerbaijani history.

Brothers Cyril and Alexander Makinsky, Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov and other our compatriots were fighting for France in the most difficult periods of the occupation of France by the Nazis.

The fact that today France takes an unfair position towards Azerbaijan is also disrespect for the souls of Azerbaijanis who died for France.

The visit of Head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, General de Gaulle to Baku on November 27, 1944 is remembered as a gesture of gratitude to the Azerbaijanis who participated in the resistance movement.

Moreover, it is sad to see the destruction of the universal values of France under the influence of the Armenian Diaspora.

Condemnation and humanitarian existence

Today a number of politicians, encouraging destructive separatism in the Azerbaijani territory, create obstacles to a lasting peace between the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples in the homeland of Cardinal Richelieu - in France, which, by applying the "state-nation" principle in the system of international relations, did not allow a "state within the state" to be created and as a result, the Huguenots subordinated to the central government.

When President Macron was elected president for the second time, he announced that the issue of protecting the environment would be one of his priorities.

In this case, the use of capabilities by France to suppress the environmental crimes of Armenians in the Azerbaijani territories, where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily deployed, is fully consistent with the policy of the French government.

We do not lose hope that France will adhere to the principles proclaimed as its priority. We also agree with the call in the famous letter of French politicians to Macron: "The President of the Republic can prove to all our compatriots that France is free".

We also believe that the French president will give priority to the interests of France, rather than the Armenian community and politicians under its influence, and will support the efforts of Azerbaijan, loyal to such values as tolerance and multiculturalism, for the sake of justice and peace in the region.

In conclusion, I would like to remind once again that there is no partial justice.

The obvious double standards that we face discredit the norms and principles of international law throughout the world.

Respect and observance of generally accepted norms and principles of international law is also the responsibility of France, as one of the leading countries in the world,” the appeal says.