France, which together with other OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries has been dealing with settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for more than 25 years, fully comprehends that the reason behind the tension in the region is Armenia's continuation of military occupation of Azerbaijani territories, the spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, Hikmat Hajiyev, said, commenting on the latest statement of France's Foreign Ministry.
He recalled that over a million Azerbaijanis became victims of ethnic cleansing in Armenia and in the occupied territories, due to which Azerbaijan suffered the greatest humanitarian catastrophe in Europe in the early 1990s after World War II.
Armenia authorities still continues to ignore the relevant UN Security Council resolutions that demand an unconditional and complete withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories and ensuring the return of Azerbaijani IDPs to their native lands. Azerbaijani President's statement about the return of Azerbaijanis to their historical lands, as set forth in international documents and UN Security Council resolutions, is one of the important humanitarian principles of the conflict resolution process, Hajiyev noted.
"France, a member of the OSCE Minsk Group and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and other co-chairs should be concerned by the illegal acts of Armenia for the annexation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as well as by the attempts to change the demographics and destruction of the material-cultural and religious heritage of the Azerbaijani people in the occupied territories," APA cited the diplomat's statement as saying.
In this regard, one of the most worrying moments is the establishment of ties between the regions of France and the illegal regime as opposed to the official statements of the French Foreign Ministry and the Interior Ministry and the status of France as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as the entry of representatives of the illegal regime into France, in violation of the provisions of the Schengen visa, and propaganda carried out by them, the spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry stressed.
He also called on the French side to pay attention to the "February 20 congratulatory message of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to the illegal regime on the 30th anniversary of the aggressive separatism in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region".
"The Armenian president presents the illegal regime created as a result of terrorism, aggressive separatism, aggression and bloody ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijan as 'a success' and calls for the annexation of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territories," Hajiyev stressed. "We believe that France, which suffers from international terrorism, should be seriously concerned by the letter of Armenian president, in which he proudly quotes terrorist Monte Melkonian, who committed terrorist acts in France and killed innocent French citizens," he pointed out.
In this regard, the spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry call on his French colleagues not to succumb to misinformation and propaganda of the Armenian lobby circles in France.
