Azerbaijan slams new French parliamentary resolution as ‘provocation’
Resolution undermines normalization process between Baku, Yerevan, says Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry
Slamming a new French resolution on what Paris calls “aggression” against Armenia, Azerbaijan on Thursday called the move “another provocation by France against Azerbaijan.”
“The false and slanderous anti-Azerbaijan resolution adopted in the lower chamber (National Assembly) of the French Parliament on November 30, 2022 is another provocation by France against Azerbaijan, similar to the recent resolution adopted in the Senate,” said an Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry statement.
The statement says the resolution “aims to undermine the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as efforts to establish peace and stability in the region.”
“This resolution, contrary to the norms and principles of international law, once again clearly demonstrates France’s biased political position, and its inability to act as an impartial and fair mediator,” the statement added.
Rejecting the resolutions in both French chambers, Azerbaijan accused Paris of “biased intentions,” criticizing it for not working instead to resolve the conflict.
“Armenia occupied the territory of Azerbaijan for 30 years,” wrote Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to France Leyla Abdullayeva on Twitter, referring to Armenia’s decades-long occupation of Karabakh, which Azerbaijan forces largely recaptured in a fall 2020 conflict.
“It has committed war crimes and devastated the region by trampling on the fundamental rights of nearly a million Azerbaijanis. You, on the other hand, remain silent, (and) now you are hindering peace by talking.”
On Nov. 16, Azerbaijan rebuffed a French Senate resolution calling for sanctions against Baku and its withdrawal from territory liberated from Armenian occupation in 2020.
Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions – Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Qubadli, and Zangilan.
In the fall of 2020, in 44 days of clashes, Baku liberated numerous cities, villages, and settlements in Karabakh from Armenian occupation, ending in a Moscow-brokered truce. The conflict’s peace agreement was celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.
