Macron's statement regarding Karabakh conflict is message to Armenia
By Rashid Shirinov
France, as one of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, is definitely interested in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and periodically declares this.
French social activist Vienne Nasiri made the remarks in an interview with Day.Az on February 3.
He said that the recent statement by French President Emmanuel Macron was yet another confirmation of the French position on the long-standing problem.
Last week, Macron stated that France is a supporter of a compromise in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, since the status quo is not a solution to the conflict. He noted that France will continue to follow the way of listening to all sides of the conflict.
“France supports the principle of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and will definitely continue its efforts towards the settlement of the conflict in accordance with the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair,” Nasiri said.
He added that Macron’s statement can be regarded as a serious message to Armenia.
“Armenia must realize that this problem aggravates not only relations with Azerbaijan, but also threatens the whole region,” the expert mentioned.
Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on the country. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
To this day, Armenia has not implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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