Azernews.Az

The newly-appointed French ambassador in Baku Gabriel Keller has said Azerbaijan was "a very interesting and politically important state" for his country.
"Azerbaijan is a key state for our foreign policy as well as for European Union`s energy security," Keller told the press Thursday.
He emphasized that Paris backed a peaceful and fair settlement to the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict the country faces with Armenia.
Keller spoke highly of the June 6 meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian held outside St. Petersburg, Russia. He said talks on the Garabagh settlement were under way based on the Madrid principles, which were approved by the two leaders.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs from the United States, Russia and France brokering peace talks submitted written proposals on the peace process to Baku and Yerevan in the Spanish capital on November 28. The document is a set of basic principles for the peaceful settlement of the dispute.
Elaborating on France`s voting against the resolution on the situation in the occupied Azerbaijani territories passed at the United Nations in mid-March, the ambassador said the mediators always adhered to a common position on all issues concerning the conflict resolution.
"This doesn`t mean that we disagree with the provisions of the resolution, it means that there is some legal incompliance between the Madrid proposals and that document, and since the resolution did not reflect all of the elements on the negotiating table, it does not take the conflicting sides forward in peace talks."
The resolution comprising nine provisions urged a full and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories. The MG co-chair countries voted against the paper.
Armenia occupies Upper Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts despite five standing UN resolutions on unconditional pullout of its armed forces and condemnation by a number of other international groups.
Commenting on Armenia`s incompliance with the UN Security Council`s decisions, Keller said "all resolutions must be observed".
With regard to the recognition of the alleged Armenian genocide in the French parliament, the envoy said this was not Paris`s stance.
"The French government`s official position is that historical developments should be studied not by the legislative body but by historians," he said.
Armenians say Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people in 1915, a claim strenuously denied by the modern Turkish state.