Summary:
- Aliyev steps up criticism of French backing for Armenia
- Azerbaijan in sturdy assign after retaking Karabakh quandary
- Baku seeks peace take care of Armenia with out Western mediation
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev accused France on Tuesday of developing stipulations for a original conflict within the South Caucasus by supplying arms to Armenia.
Aliyev former a speech at a conference on decolonisation in Baku to bring a scathing broadside in opposition to France, which stated closing month it had agreed original contracts to present militia instruments to Armenia.
“France destabilises no longer easiest its previous and tell colonies nonetheless also our quandary, the South Caucasus, by supporting separatist inclinations and separatists,” Aliyev stated.
“By arming Armenia, it implements a militaristic policy, encourages revanchist forces in Armenia, and prepares the ground for the commence of most up-to-date wars in our quandary.”
In response, a French diplomatic source stated France, with European and U.S. partners, used to be practising a correct form and sturdy peace within the southern Caucasus, in accordance with the principles of appreciate for sovereignty and borders.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fetch fought two wars within the previous three decades nonetheless Aliyev scored a prime victory in September by recapturing the Karabakh quandary of Azerbaijan, where ethnic Armenians had loved de facto independence for the reason that early 1990s. Extra than 100,000 of them fetch since fled to Armenia.
Azerbaijan is now in a indispensable assign to stable an kindly peace take care of Armenia and has taken an an increasing number of no longer easy line in direction of Western worldwide locations, namely France and the United States, which fetch huge ethnic Armenian communities and fetch been sympathetic in direction of Yerevan.
A French diplomatic source stated closing week that France had asked Baku for clarification after its cyber defence unit uncovered a disinformation advertising and marketing campaign emanating from Azerbaijan that aimed to undermine Paris’ skill to take care of subsequent year’s Olympic Games.
Highlighting the deterioration of relatives, Aliyev stated in Tuesday’s speech that France used to be liable for “many of the bloody crimes within the colonial ancient previous of humanity”.
A European diplomat voiced project that Azerbaijan, after taking assist the Karabakh quandary, may maybe maybe well moreover strive and take territory in southern Armenia with the purpose of opening a corridor to its exclave of Nakhchivan, which borders Turkey, Iran and Armenia.
“We are with out a doubt jumpy about Armenia’s territorial integrity,” the diplomat told Reuters.
Azerbaijan says such worries are counterfeit, and that it’s working with Iran on developing a transport corridor to Nakhchivan all over Iranian territory.
Azerbaijani presidential adviser Hikmet Hajiyev told Reuters that Baku wants bilateral peace talks with Armenia and believes they’ll attain an agreement mercurial with out the need for Western mediation.
“A peace agreement is no longer nuclear physics. If there is completely correct will, the indispensable principles of a peace agreement may maybe maybe well be labored out in a rapid time,” he stated.
On the query of Western involvement, he added: “We need peace in our quandary, no longer in Washington, Paris or Brussels.”
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry stated talks with Armenia may maybe maybe well moreover happen on the border between the two worldwide locations or in one other assign.
Years of mediation by the European Union, the United States and Russia fetch did now not fetch the two worldwide locations to stamp a peace deal. They’ve but to agree on the demarcation of their shared border, which stays closed and extremely militarised. Border skirmishes, typically fatal, remain a protracted-established incidence.
Azerbaijan, which has finish ties to Turkey, has in most up-to-date months many cases backed out of peace talks brokered by the U.S. and the EU, each of which it has accused of educated-Armenian bias.
Armenian High Minister Nikol Pashinyan this week credited the EU with helping to bring a peace deal nearer, nonetheless stated the two facets fetch been aloof “talking various diplomatic languages”.
Reporting by Nailia Bagirova and John Irish, writing by Brand Trevelyan and Felix Light
Editing by Gareth Jones
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Reuters recordsdata agency contributed to this yarn, printed by ORDO News editors.
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