France drags itself into quagmire with its anti-Azerbaijan move

By Abbas Ganbay and Qabil Ashirov

The resolution of the French Senate directed towards Azerbaijan speaks not only about the clear intention of Paris to hinder the peace process but also about the weight of gifts by Armenian lobbies given to the Senate to satisfy some of its corrupt members. France, which is experiencing exile from Africa and is experiencing economic, migration, and even cultural and social crises, has taken to supporting separatism. It is no wonder that the "powerhouse" country is going through all sorts of ordeals with a bloody track record of colonising 50 countries around the world.

Newly appointed French officials, like the current president, have decided to rectify the crisis situation in the country and have declared their commitment to protect their colonised regions and Armenia itself. Based on "experience", officials in that country are "consolidating" their decision to save the country and Armenia by imposing sanctions on Azerbaijan, thereby depriving their people of stable gas prices and warmth in their homes.

"We will steadfastly ensure the protection of our overseas territories and fulfil the obligations that our great nation has. I could mention the Balkans and Armenia, which are at the centre of our attention, strengthening our position and making a historic decision, especially with regard to Armenia, which I just mentioned," French President Emmanuel Macron said in his address to the country's Armed Forces.

Questions arise in respect of President Macron's statement: Since when does the French president care about his people? And what kind of "historical decision" regarding Armenia was prepared by France? Will they accept the Armenians who voluntarily left Garabagh in Marseille?

According to Oliver Pardo, a former judge and former first adviser to the French Minister of Justice, the resolution, which he considers scandalous, reflects a total ignorance of the situation in Azerbaijan.

"Indeed, Armenian propaganda has reached such "heights" in anti-Azerbaijani statements and propaganda of "Greater Armenia" around the world that the masses unconsciously absorb this propaganda as truth. But despite this, there are those among the masses who do not go along with the "authorities".

According to the former judge, the Armenian diaspora is a powerful lobby that affects quite a few cities in France, and to those who do not know the laws or do not know the situation sufficiently, the Armenian lobbies present their vision of the situation and influence them.

"It is also relevant to those who prefer to remain silent for the sake of their own electoral ambitions. It's a scandal in international law."

President Macron's position is getting worse by the day, and his commitment to the ideology of "order out of chaos" is being met with mass protests and a violent response to the protests from those in power. Appointing the French Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, who are "close" acquaintances of each other, the French President bet on the Armenian lobby and their diaspora. Newly appointed ministers followed in the president's footsteps and also enlisted the support of Armenian revanchists.

Besides that, Stéphane Sejourne, the recently appointed French Foreign Minister, conveyed a message to the diplomatic corps, in which he also noted that "France will provide continuous support to Armenia."

"It is necessary to pursue a just and lasting peace based on respect for the law and territorial integrity and to ensure the right of the population to live in dignity, respecting their memory, history, and culture," the French diplomat added.

It is enough to recall the more than 5 million mines laid by the French occupation troops on Algerian territory, the more than 1. 5 million Algerians who died during the occupation of Algeria from 1830 to 1962, the French-occupied Djibouti, Chad, and Niger, where the inhabitants were forbidden to receive Islamic education and mosques and madrassas were destroyed, and the 18,000 skulls of soldiers who died in the colonial wars of the 19th century, which were brought to Paris and are kept and exhibited in the Museum of Man.

Along with all these injustices, these newly appointed ministers talk about respecting the law and territorial integrity", and accuse Azerbaijan. The Armenian and French authorities are very similar in their actions; both Armenians laid mines in the territory of Azerbaijan's Garabagh previously occupied by them.

Turning to the Armenian French propaganda, it is worth mentioning the pro-Armenian newspaper La Figaro, which is only adding fuel to the fire in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

The pro-Armenian deputy director of the newspaper, Jean Christophe Buisson, is one of the examples of a corrupt yellow press. After his attacks on the appointment of the new French Minister of Culture, Rashida Dati (who in 2016 signed a statement in support of Azerbaijan), his loyalty to Armenians solidified, and he decided to play further by creating lies and accusing Azerbaijan of preparing for a new aggression against Armenia.

"Azerbaijani propagandists are having fun at the behest of those in power. Here is the map they have been broadcasting for 3 days now. All of Armenia has been renamed 'Western Azerbaijan' to prepare the country for a new war and justify Aliyev's next military aggression," Buisson wrote in X.

As expected, another deception is that there is no organisation called "Public Union of Western Azerbaijan" in Azerbaijan. We also remember Buisson's history with Islamophobic statements, justifying the murder of Algerian student Malik Oussekin by French police in 2023. He deliberately misrepresented information, and on the air of the radio programme "Remaking the World" on the RTL channel, it stated that Malik died because of "insulin problems". His words outraged the public. As a result, he was forced to apologise a day later.

"The court has ruled on this matter and I do not intend to challenge it," Buisson wrote

According to Buisson, it turned out that the fact that a Muslim man was killed by French police violence was normal.

Further to pro-Armenian French politicians' adventures, stories of anti-Azerbaijan propaganda do not get over.

Reading the interview of Pierre Ouzoulias, a French communist senator and vice president of the upper house of Parliament, with the local media outlet, some could conclude that either the French diplomats are too ignorant to understand geopolitics or they are trying to fool their audience. A French communist senator babbled on about the adopted resolution against Azerbaijan in the French senate and solemnly noted that they were able (ostensibly) to stop Azerbaijan from "annihilating Armenia".

It is worth recalling that Azerbaijan has never had territorial claims against its neighbours. Baku has never had any intention to occupy the territories of another state. The July confrontation in 2020 is the best example of it. As President Ilham Aliyev said several times, at that time, Azerbaijan had chances to enter Armenia, but it did not do it because we did not need any territories.

Secondly, as is known, Armenia is a member of the CSTO, and any attack on Armenia is equal to declaring war on six countries, including Russia and Kazakhstan, which have borders with Azerbaijan. In other words, declaring war on Armenia means fighting on three fronts, which no country in the world, not even the USA, can do.

Pierre Ouzoulias does not limit himself to the above-mentioned lies. He calls the 44-day war in 2020 and the anti-terror measures conducted by Azerbaijan in 2023 the "invasion of artsakh". Once again, it is worth recalling that there was no country in the world called Artsakh. Even neither France nor Armenia recognised such a country. On the contrary, the whole world, including France and Armenia, recognised Garabagh as part of Azerbaijan. Moreover, the UN adopted 4 resolutions against Armenia on the invasion of Garabagh, and France chaired one of these meetings. Here raises the question: "Whence has arstakh emerged? or do French senators contradict their previous decisions?"

The more the French communist senator speaks, the more he disgraces himself by revealing his ignorance. He associates the Garabagh issue with the Ukrainian invasion and claims that "all these autonomous republics that were part of the Soviet Union" cannot be solved with forces.

Again, the French senator needs to know that Garabagh has never been an autonomous republic. Secondly, France supports Ukrainian territorial integrity and denounces the Russian invasion of Crimea, where ethnic Russians live. For this purpose, France provides Ukraine with weapons. However, in the Garabagh issue, France is doing the totally opposite. Meaning that Paris supports Armenia, which invaded Azerbaijani territories where ethnic Armenians lived and even provided Armenia with lethal weapons. More importantly, when Armenia invaded Garabagh and expelled over 750,000 Azerbaijani citizens from their hometowns, France turned a blind eye and never tried to impose sanctions on Yerevan.

So, given the abovementioned facts, can France prevent Azerbaijan from invading Armenia? It should be emphasised that France is the last country to have any influence on Azerbaijan. France is not strong enough to fight with Azerbaijan. Most importantly, it does not have any military infrastructure in the region to confront Azerbaijan. Besides, except for a dozen French companies in Azerbaijan, France and Azerbaijan do not have much economic cooperation or trade turnover, either. So, here comes a question: "What does Paris aim to do?"