Annulment of all illegal documents remains priority for Azerbaijani diplomatic mission in France - ambassador
By Trend
Annulment of all illegal documents [signed between certain French municipal authorities and illegal Armenian regime in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh] was and remains the priority for Azerbaijani Embassy in France, and Shusha is a special topic, the embassy’s head Rahman Mustafayev told Trend.
Mustafayev made the statement, commenting on the liquidation of the so-called “charters of friendship” with Azerbaijani Shusha and Khojavand cities, previously occupied by Armenia, by the Administrative Court of Appeal of the French Lyon city.
As earlier reported, the court has recently adopted three decisions on the liquidation of the previously signed illegal "charters of friendship" among the French cities of Saint-Etienne, Bourg-Les-Valence, Decines-Charpieu, and the previously Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani cities of Shusha and Khojavand in favor of Azerbaijan.
Speaking about the decisions, the ambassador reminded that during 2013-2020 French local governments of different levels (regions, departments, cities, communes) adopted a total of 28 illegal acts (charters, declarations, resolutions, statements, and others) related to the previously occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
“Especially in this regard, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, capital of which is the city of Lyon, "distinguished itself". It accounts for 15 illegal documents in cooperation with the previously occupied territories. It’s the third-largest region (70,000 sq. km) and the second most populous French region (with eight million residents),” he noted. “Its territory, as you can see, is slightly less compared to Azerbaijan. It’s also France's largest economic region, ranking 7th in Europe in terms of GDP. Namely, here most of the French Armenians live and, accordingly, the anti-Azerbaijani campaign has the most hostile and aggressive forms.”
“Saint-Etienne, Bourg-Les-Valence, Decines-Charpieu cities are located namely in the mentioned region. The so-called “charters of friendship" were signed between mayors of the cities with representatives of the illegal regime of the previously occupied Shusha and Khojavand on October 5, 2014, September 25, 2017, and on October 21, 2018, respectively,” Mustafayev further reminded. “As a result of the work carried out by the embassy together with its lawyers, and with the active support of the relevant structures of the Presidential Administration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, the Administrative Tribunals of Grenoble and Lyon annulled these illegal agreements on June 6, 2019, and September 19, 2019.”
“Under pressure from the Armenian community, the mayors of the mentioned three cities appealed in August, September, and November 2019. A few days ago, we received an official notice that on June 24, 2021, the Lyon Administrative Court of Appeal dismissed all three appeals and upheld the previous decisions to annul the illegal charters,” he added.
“The liquidation of all illegal documents was and remains the most important task of our embassy, but the fact is that Shusha is a special topic. I made this statement in 2019, when Shusha was still occupied. The city is the spiritual, cultural capital of our country, for me personally this [liquidation of all the illegal documents] was an absolute priority. We could not allow attempts to legalize the occupation of our Shusha by the Franco-Armenian radicals, supporters of ASALA [terrorist organization] and pro-Armenian French politicians,” concluded Mustafayev.
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