Pundit: France’s ambiguous stance on Baku-Yerevan to affect Baku-Paris future ties

By Azernews

Sabina Mammadli

Overlooking the unrest on the streets of its cities and its long history of genocidal policy, France is a loud player in the South Caucasus, claiming to be a supporter of peace negotiations. In this premise, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna is expected to visit Baku from April 26 to 28 following visits to Yerevan and Tbilisi.

It is expected that during the visit Catherine Colonna will hold a meeting with her Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov. During her visit to Armenia, Colonna will visit the headquarters of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Jermuk.

The said minister has previously tweeted that the upcoming visits are intended to convey the message of her criticism of the so-called 'closure' of the Lachin road by Azerbaijan. Despite such a provoking statement, Colonna also talked about her determination for continuous negotiations in the South Caucasus and peace in the region.

The fact that both statements are contradictory to each other does not seem to raise any questions amidst the French government, which whole policy is based on contradictions. The French government which claims to know “the importance of preserving peace in the Caucasus” has repeatedly condemned the so-called “blockade” of the Lachin road and the recent establishment of a checkpoint by the Azerbaijani side, along with other Western “diplomats”.

In a comment to Azernews, Pakistani analyst, author, political expert Prof Shazia Anwer Cheema talked about the upcoming visit of the French foreign minister and the Western perspectives on the Azerbaijani-Armenian negotiation process.

“It said that France’s purpose in the visits to Azerbaijan and Armenia is to demonstrate France's commitment to supporting negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan to achieve a just and lasting peace while respecting territorial integrity and the principles of international law. I think the French articulation of Western perspectives about Azerbaijan and Armenia is a slippery slope,” the pundit emphasized.

Cheema pointed out that on the one hand, France is in the region with the agenda of having peace by respecting the territorial boundaries between both countries and on the other hand, France is pepping Armenia for its propagated self-claimed suffering.

The Pakistani expert emphasized that there will be no peace until Armenia stops the aggressive provocation towards Azerbaijan.

“Armenia has to respect the territorial integrity, on the contrary, Armenia is installing Defense Infrastructure across more than 500 km of the new border line, and no country looking for a peaceful solution would go to this length of provocation,” she stated.

Talking about the upcoming visit of Colonna, the pundit noted that she doesn’t “expect anything substantial coming out of this diplomatic visit because as the visit agenda itself suggests France is not looking for concrete steps to resolve the issue instead it is just beating the bush”.

“The peaceful Caucasus requires a firm stance to stop Armenia’s aggressive approach in the region. If the West is interested in that, they have to change their politically correct strategy and need to address the real problem which is Armenia’s ingrained hatred towards its neighbor,” she added.

The analyst also stressed that France’s ambiguous stance on the Azerbaijan and Armenia conflict will certainly affect Azerbaijan-France future relations.