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Azerbaijan Slams France, Armenia Over Francophonie Summit Document, Remarks


The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan in Baku (file photo).
The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan in Baku (file photo).

Authorities in Azerbaijan have accused France of using the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) as “an instrument of its foreign policy”, saying that it will consider the documents adopted by it as “politically biased.”

In a statement Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called “provocative” remarks by Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan during a November 18 ministerial meeting prior to the Francophonie summit in Tunisia about what it described as “the anti-Azerbaijani position of members of the organization.”

Referring to the draft resolution on crisis situations in the Francophone space, Minister Mirzoyan emphasized the importance of the fact that La Francophonie member states and governments “have expressed their solidarity with Armenia, making as their own the main issues that determine the peaceful settlement of the sides to the conflict.”

Mirzoyan stressed that the paragraphs of the statement regarding Armenia, a full member of the OIF since 2012, are “very balanced and represent the result of compromises into which Armenia has put great effort.”

Azerbaijan, which is not a member of the Francophonie organization, said it believed that the final version of the document contains certain elements that “do not fall within the jurisdiction of the organization’s mandate.” Baku claimed that Armenia could use those elements “to carry out political propaganda.” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry also accused France of using “political pressure” in the process of agreeing the text of the document.

French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Council Charles Michel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and leaders of other French-speaking countries attended the summit of the 54-nation organization, which was held on the Tunisian island of Djerba on November 19-20.

In his speech at the summit, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian spoke about the occupation of Armenian territories by Azerbaijan, stressing that Baku violates fundamental principles of the UN Charter, in particular, the principle of non-use of force against the territorial integrity of any state.

Pashinian also reaffirmed Armenia’s commitment to “contributing to the process of achieving a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, as well as ensuring the rights and security of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Official Yerevan says Azerbaijan currently occupies dozens of square kilometers of sovereign Armenian territory that it captured as a result of a series of incursions made since May 2021. Baku denies the claim.

Nearly 300 soldiers were killed on both sides in border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan in mid-September, which proved to be the deadliest fighting between the two countries since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh that claimed the lives of close to 7,000 people.

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