Dozens of French mayors, deputies and senators, including Anne Hidalgo and Laurent Wauquiez, call on France to come out of its position of neutrality in the face of "Azerbaijani aggression against the Armenians" in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In a column published in the JDD, 173 French mayors, deputies and senators call on France to step down from its position of neutrality in the face of “Azerbaijan’s aggression against the Armenians” in Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist region backed by Armenia and for Azerbaijan to win back.
According to them, this attack represents “an unbearable aggression against a country that is friendly to France”. In a column published on Sunday, October 4 in the Journal du dimanche 173 French mayors, deputies and senators, including Anne Hidalgo and Laurent Wauquiez, call on Paris to step down from its position of neutrality in the face of “Azerbaijan’s aggression against the Armenians” in Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist region that Azerbaijan is trying to win back.
The column was published in collaboration with the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations in France. The elected signatories believe that French diplomacy, which “spares no effort”, “should, in the light of recent events in 2020, reconsider its strategy in depth”.
A platform signed by elected officials from all political stripes
“On July 12 and over several days, the Azerbaijani army has already attacked not Nagorno-Karabakh but Armenia, whose borders are still unanimously recognized by the international community,” the signatories wrote. “This attack represented an attack. Unbearable aggression against a country friendly to France, for which we have a historical and universal responsibility for the genocide in which its people fell victim in 1915.”
This responsibility must, they say, “lead us to go beyond this absolutely unbearable position of neutrality when civilians have been attacked for several hours: women and children have been killed and the city of Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, several kilometers from the front line has been the target of bombings. “Neutrality cannot be an empty control of an offensive whose sole purpose is to eliminate the Armenian people in this territory.”
In addition to Anne Hidalgo, PS Mayor of Paris, and Laurent Wauquiez, LR President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the platform was signed by elected officials from all political backgrounds, in particular the mayors of Marseille, Michèle Rubirola and Nice, Christian Estrosi, or the former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
Turkey’s role was condemned
The signatories also condemn Turkey’s role of “violently fueling the conflict through declarations of war to the Azerbaijanis” and through “sending military – not to say jihadists – in Turkey’s salary, taken to Azerbaijan from Syria where they had come to sow death especially against the Kurdish people.”
“For all these reasons, we believe that French diplomacy must reconsider its strategy in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the signatories continued. “Strongly condemns the Azerbaijani aggression and demands an immediate end to the violence from part of Azerbaijan, following massive support for the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities, who will demand recognition of their full legitimacy.”
