TODAY.AZ / Politics

Expert: France under Macron not to change position on Karabakh conflict

10 May 2017 [16:56] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews


By Rashid Shirinov

Although France has always supported Armenia, Paris won’t change its position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after Emmanuel Macron’s becoming France’s new president, said Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Institute for Analysis of Global Security.

The expert, who is also the founder of International Market Analysis Ltd. and director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics, told Trend that in general, France’s policy in the South Caucasus doesn’t seem to be changed.

France along with Russia and the U.S. is a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group established to broker a peace to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

Cohen suggested that Macron’s administration will hold more anti-Moscow position than any of the previous administrations.

"The course of independence of the three South Caucasus states will be a priority for France," he noted.

The expert added that Macron’s administration is also going to have strong relations with Germany and the U.S.

Emmanuel Macron won 66.1 percent of the vote against 33.9 percent for far-right leader Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential election. Macron received a total of 20,753,797 votes, compared with 10,644,118 for Marine Le Pen, the Interior Ministry of France announced the day after the landmark election.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/160984.html

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