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He emphasized that the establishment of relations of a French town or a settlement with the illegal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories is nothing more than self-deception.

“Practice shows that the heads of such towns and settlements are engaged in such amateur activity in order to enlist the support of the local Armenian community in local election. To this end, they, violating moral and ethical norms, try to turn a blind eye to the fact that this illegal regime is the result of occupation, aggression and bloody ethnic cleansing,” noted the spokesman.

“The Armenian lobbying organizations, instead of contributing to the achievement of sustainable peace in the region and the conflict’s settlement through negotiations and mediation by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, one of which is France, are engaged in deception and misappropriation of funds of the Armenian diaspora representatives,” added the Azerbaijani official.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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