Azerbaijani leader gives France's Macron a Roland For an Oliver in his Algiers speech
By Fuad Muxtar-Aqbabali
President Ilham Aliyev’s address to the 31st Arab League Summit in Algiers on November 1 was a Roland for an Oliver for France’s Macron and pro-Armenian political circles for their anti-Azerbaijani frenzy.
The choice of Algerian capital as the venue to give a clear-cut and prompt response to pro-Armenian Macron’s recent anti-Azerbaijani delirium was no doubt a well-thought-out political and diplomatic move to get the point across and have the message of France’s brutalities in Algeria and other nations be heard clearly.
The emphasis on France, made in the speech of the Azerbaijani leader was not at all serendipitous but a straightforward response to Macron and - to the French Senate, which intends to vote on the anti-Azerbaijani resolution on November 15. French parliamentarians are trying to persuade their government to seek international condemnation of Azerbaijan for "war crimes".
It is no secret that the Armenian Diaspora has most of the French parliamentarians in the palm of its hand, who are advocating this ridiculous move and are driven by the desire to have Azerbaijan blamed for regaining its territories from under the 30-year-long occupation of Armenia. This internationally-recognized right is enshrined in all documents as well as of the UN, and Azerbaijan has realized it independently though France as one of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group failed to live up to the commitment to this effect.
In remarks, the Azerbaijani president expressed his delight at visiting this African nation on a special day - the day of national liberation, a day of national dignity, adding that he paid respect to the memory of the martyrs at the Memorial of Martyrs.
“I visited the Museum of Moudjahid and was deeply impressed and shocked by what I have seen. The brutality, and mass atrocities committed by France against the people of Algeria, are something the world should never forget. France conducted a terrible war against the Algerian people for more than 130 years which resulted in the deaths of more than one and a half million Algerians. Today, commemorating this tragedy, we need to do everything in order to avoid these tragedies in the future,” the Azerbaijani president said.
Official Paris with a tarnished reputation is not and cannot be a fair arbiter and its failure to recognize and admit what it did in Algeria against natives of this land fighting for their independence once again deprive it of the right of accusing other nations.
France has always been pro-Armenian and even during the Soviet time, Paris did everything to protect Armenia and now when Yerevan is formally independent, its attempts to back Armenia for anti-Azerbaijani crimes are shocking amid France's alleged loyalty to principles of sovereignty, human rights, and other democratic principles.
Now the pro-Armenian circles in France are just waiting for a formal reason to emerge and accuse Baku of crimes it has never committed. The same France that carried out the genocide in Algeria and has not yet condemned it comes out in support of Armenia - the very one that, according to Ilham Aliyev, “pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijan, committed acts of vandalism on Azerbaijani lands". After the liberation of these territories, Azerbaijan and the world saw that everything in Karabakh had been destroyed by Armenia. But most European nations and governments that keep talking about commonly-shared values, prefer to keep silent over Armenian brutalities that lasted 30 years and are still coming to light with reconstruction and rebuilding across formerly occupied lands.
As a saying goes, tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are. The actions of Yerevan in Karabakh were no different from the crimes of France in Algeria, but “Azerbaijan is to blame for everything” according to the unpretentious logic of the French establishment. There is no need to talk about whether Paris has the moral right to condemn somebody after its behavior in Algeria. But various political circles in France still consider themselves to be the yardstick of universal human values.
In its rabid anti-Azerbaijani position, Paris crosses all boundaries. At a time when Europe has more or less successfully overcome the gas and oil crisis, and largely thanks to Baku, the French senators are going to demand from their government that it seek the ban on the purchase of Azerbaijani oil and gas by the European Union member nations.
This is the choice of Paris - to demonize Baku in the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict, defiantly ignoring the feelings, interests, and pain of the Azerbaijani people. Exactly two years ago, during the Second Karabakh War, more than 80 cities and villages in Azerbaijan were subjected to missile attacks. Nearly 100 civilians were killed, including 27 women and 12 children - among them several innocent babies. Since then, neither the French parliament nor the parliaments of other European countries have reacted in any way to these victims as well as many other atrocities of Armenia in Azerbaijani territories.
France and no other country with a tarnished reputation has the right to give biased moral assessments and label Azerbaijan for the liberation of its own historical territories by force as international laws proved incapable of compelling Armenia to abandon occupied lands.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz