Armenian Lobbyism In Play
French parliamentarians have issued an anti-Azerbaijan resolution. The Armenia Lobby has been at work undermining the neutrality of France turning it into a tool of Armenia.
On November 25, 2020, France’s parliament upper house – the French Senate – adopted a resolution against the Republic of Azerbaijan and the French National Assembly adopted the resolution on December 3, 2020.
On November 15, 2022, the French parliament’s upper house adopted this scandalous resolution, presented by the La République En Marche Party’s representatives, foreseeing sanctions against the Republic of Azerbaijan. Moving forward, on November 28, 2022, this resolution will be discussed in France’s National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament.
According to the French constitution, security, defense, and foreign policy matters are directly under the government’s authority, more precisely, Emmanuel Macron, the President of the French Republic; in other words, the resolution is stamped by the … Elysée Palace.
France’s parliament upper house – the Senate – has shown an apparent disrespect for the norms and principles of international law and adopted this biased and unfair resolution against Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Emmanuel Macron and his Parliament now appear to be in violation of international law.
The Armenia Lobby
The Armenia lobby has many tentacles spreading into many countries around the world and its actions and influence often border on malfeasance.
The French legislature’s disrespect for its constituents is unending.
France’s senate has decided to sacrifice the state’s interest to the Armenia lobby, disrespecting international law while validating terrorism, riots, conflict, and occupation and even defending Armenia’s wide range carnage of innocent Azeri civilians.
What is becoming clear is that the French Government and President Macron are about to sell their constituents’ interests to the Armenian lobby.
With groundless claims … Elysée Palace is exerting political pressure on Azerbaijan, rather than contributing to the peace process and all-around normalization in the Caucasus region and beyond.
Though Azerbaijan was finally able to ensure its territorial integrity, yet, still fighting for its sovereignty, official France decided to exert political terror on Azerbaijan as it is healing from its 2020 44-day war with Armenia after 30 years of illegal Armenian occupation.
Macron and his parliamentarians are demonstrating they have graduated from the school of Armenianism lobbyism.
Pushkin’s Armenian Tazit is instructional.
“You’re a slave, a coward, and an Armenian” ~ Alexander Pushkin
“You’re a slave, a coward, and an Armenian” is a verse from the poem ‘Tazit.’ In this poem, the protagonist of the story refuses to kill and/or plunder people. Tazit’s father, Gasoob, who since Tazit’s birth wanted him to take revenge and kill his brother’s murderer. His father did not like how peaceable his son was. He gets furious when he finds out that Tazit met the murderer wounded and weak but did not kill him. Gasoob calls his son a slave, a coward, an Armenian.
Pushkin addressed Armenians for what they are, subjects of others and advantage-takers?
Against the backdrop of raging racism, antisemitism, Azeriphobia, Turkophobia, and Islamophobia in France, a selective approach is applied to fundamental values such as freedom. Macron’s France degraded its “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” dictum and applies it to Christians only.
France’s parliament resolution calls for Azerbaijan’s forces to withdraw from their own internationally recognized territory of Karabakh, as specified and acknowledged in the “Lachin Corridor” draft resolution. Armenia never uttered that demand. This shows that France is being “more Armenian than the Armenians themselves,” and France is now a toy in the hands of the radical Armenia lobby.
With this resolution, Macron and his senate proved to be an unreliable and hypocritical ally of Azerbaijan.
France Letting Down Azerbaijan
On December 20, 1993, France and Azerbaijan signed a “Treaty on Friendship, Mutual Understanding and Cooperation.” Yet, the French senate decided to violate, disrespect and contradict its obligation to this treaty document.
In addition to France’s discrimination against Azerbaijan’s political and legal framework, it also aids and abets Armenian groups living in France who violently protest against Azerbaijan in front of the country’s embassy in Paris. In fact France does not take any measures to prevent such violent protests, which proves it supports Armenian vandalism, and openly takes a hostile position toward Azerbaijan.
One can wonder why, since under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a host country commits to protect a foreign country’s diplomatic mission from all attacks and damage and to take necessary measures to prevent the breach of peace or insult to the honor of the mission.
By failing to fulfill their international obligations, France’s officials show a selective approach toward Azerbaijan.
France has played an international mediator role in the negotiation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is now trying to maintain the status quo based on the Armenian occupation and thus it contributes to one of the main reasons why the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, which is the main threat to South Caucasus security, has not been resolved in nearly 30 years.
Ill-advisedly, France has allowed the Armenian lobby to push France out of the ranks of the world’s leading countries.
France, a Questionable Mediator
France’s history is full of blood, similar to Armenia’s.
If one looks back at France’s colonial years, its history is grim.
During its history, France occupied the territory of more than 50 countries in the world, looted their resources and wealth, enslaved their people, perpetrated crimes against humanity, and caused wars and mass murders.
French Action In Algeria
Similar to what Armenia did in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh, when it buried more than one million landmines in the territory it illegally occupied, France buried around nine million landmines in the occupied territory of Algeria. And just like Armenia, it does not want to present to Algeria the mine maps. As a result, Algeria, like Azerbaijan, takes a lead among the countries suffering from mine explosions.
So far, approximately 7,300 Algerians have died in landmine explosions. Since the end of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh Patriotic War in which Azerbaijan was the victor, almost 270 Azerbaijani citizens have become victims of Armenia’s landmines.
Tragically, France killed more than 1.5 million people during its 1830-1962 occupation of Algeria, a country now called “the country of 1.5 million martyrs.”
Now France has the gall to lecture Azerbaijan about humanitarian law.
French Concealment of Truth
Tragically, France poked its nose deep into the situation of the 15-20,000 Armenians living in Karabakh, on their behalf demanding their independence. Yet, during the Algerian (1954-62) War, in October 17, 1961, in the “Paris massacre” or “Seine massacre,” the French National Police attacked 30,000 pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) Algerian demonstrators.
For 37 years France concealed the truth before it finally acknowledged the death of 40 demonstrators. However, some historians estimate that some 200 to 300 Algerian demonstrators were killed in this massacre due to the French police’s heavy-handed beating as well as mass forced drownings, when police officers threw demonstrators into the River Seine. This massacre was intentional, directed by the head of the Parisian police, Maurice Papon himself.
And yet France still lectures Azerbaijan on human rights abuse?
French Ignorance of History
It is a sad example when France calls for Armenia’s territorial integrity at every opportunity, yet, it continues to occupy Mayotte, the territory of the Union of Comoros. Mayotte is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique, a department and region of France, though traditional Mayotte culture is most closely related to that of the neighboring Comoros islands. In 1994, the UN General Assembly resolution reaffirmed the sovereignty of the Federal Islamic Republic of Comoros over Mayotte Island, but up until today, France refused to implement this resolution.
This local and foreign policy failure shows Emmanuel Macron to be a poor leader who subverts France’s future.
France’s Biased Resolution an Impediment for Peace
Macron, adhering to his tradition of “neutral mediation,” and France’s “willingness to contribute” to the process of normalization between Azerbaijan and Armenia, called the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev on November 12th. The call was made before his Parliament’s decision.
After the French Parliament’s actions on the 15th and 25th, since Mr. Macron does not respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, Mr. Aliyev did not take Macron’s political terms seriously.
Neutral Mediation
A neutral facilitator would be needed to mediate peace between the two countries. Azerbaijan now will not move forward with peace talks with Armenia, due to Macron’s non-neutral position.
Canceled Meeting
Mr. Aliyev announced that his country does not want France to participate in the peace talks with Armenia and canceled the four-way meeting that was scheduled to take place on December 7, 2022, in Brussels, Belgium, with French President Emmanuel Macron and the European Council President Charles Michel participating.
According to Mr. Aliyev, less than a week after the October 6, 2022 meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, that brought Azerbaijan and Armenia together, during an interview, Mr. Macron criticized Azerbaijan and accused it of something it had not done. Macron adopted an anti-Azerbaijani stance and insulted Baku while the French Parliament had adopted a biased, anti-Azerbaijan resolution. Paris also tried to verbally attack Azerbaijan at the Francophone Summit, in Djerba, Tunisia, on November 19, 2022.
Armenia Pushes For Compromised Mediation
More so, by Nikol Pashinyan insisting that France be a mediator in the peace talks, Mr. Aliyev accused Armenia’s Prime Minister of attempting to undermine the next stage of the talks. “Under these circumstances and given this position, France cannot be part of the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” Mr. Aliyev said. And the Armenian Foreign Ministry also wants to keep the “Prague format” in further discussions, which includes the participation of Macron and Michel.
Macron Falsely Blames Russia
Apparently, Mr. Macron blames Russia, claiming it is fueling tensions between Baku and Yerevan. At the same time, he confirmed his support for Armenia’s sovereignty to land that does not belong to it.
The fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia took a renewed turn when in September 2022 the two sides exchanged accusations of fueling this round of fighting and during which Armenia claimed that Azerbaijan had seized areas within its borders. In late September 2022, a cease-fire was agreed upon, and the two countries agreed, during their meeting in Prague, to allow the formation of a civilian European Union mission on their border.
Back to France’s Anti-Azerbaijan Resolution
In a vote of 295-1 the French Senate adopted a resolution calling on the French government to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan for its attacks against Armenia and aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh and also condemning Azerbaijan for its attack on Armenian sovereign territory in September, 2022.
The resolution calls on Baku to withdraw its troops from Armenia, and reaffirms the French Senate’s 2020 resolution calling on the French government to recognize that Nagorno-Karabakh is Armenia. Furthermore, it calls for guarantees that the status of the Lachin corridor, that links Armenia to the Karabakh region, will remain unchanged.
The Azerbaijan State Committee on Work with Diaspora called on Azerbaijani compatriots in France to mobilize and unite their forces in order to convey to the members of the French Assembly Azerbaijan’s righteous voice and fair position.
France Undermines Normalization
The French resolution undermines the normalization of the fragile Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, clearly demonstrating France’s biased, one-sided political position. The Karabakh region is the internationally-recognized territory of Azerbaijan and an undisputed integral part of Azerbaijan. The rights and security of the Armenian population that remain living there is Azerbaijan’s internal matter and not for France to interfere in.
Azerbaijan Response
In return for the French parliament’s resolution, on November 16, 2022, the Azerbaijan Parliament adopted a statement condemning the French Senate that partially reads as follows: “The resolution violates the Agreement ‘On Friendship, Mutual Understanding and Cooperation’, signed with the Republic of France on December 20, 1993. In accordance with Article 2 of the aforementioned agreement, the parties undertook to combine their efforts to ensure international security, prevent conflicts and ensure the rule of international law in interstate relations based on the principles of inviolability of borders; as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, France turned a blind eye to the nearly 30-year-long occupation of 20 percent of our internationally recognized territories and did not demand Armenia to implement the resolutions it voted for, claims that Armenia’s sovereignty was violated in the armed conflict on the undemarcated Armenia-Azerbaijani border; France’s demand in the resolution for the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from our territory, which is internationally recognized as the “Lachin Corridor,” not only clearly shows how contrary to international law the resolution is, but also shows that its authors and supporters are ignorant of the situation on the ground and are a tool in the hands of the Armenian ‘black propaganda’ machine;”
Requested Measures
Taking into account the anti-Azerbaijan activities of France, the Republic of Azerbaijan Milli Mejlis – the state legislative power branch organ is a unicameral parliament that has 125 MPs – calls on the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan to take the following measures:
- Not to allow France to participate in the initiatives and activities related to the normalization process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and, not to hold any discussions with French officials on these issues, until the guarantee of neutrality is given by the French Government;
- Freezing any assets of French officials in Azerbaijan if they are discovered;
- Not allowing French companies to participate in any project commissioned by the state of Azerbaijan;
- Reviewing the cooperation of French companies with the Azerbaijani side in the energy sector;
- Review of the existing political and economic relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of France;
- As chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, raising issues related to France’s colonial policy, crimes against humanity and war crimes within the international organization;
- Bringing the issue of France’s Islamophobia policy to the agenda within the framework of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation;
- Bringing the issue of France’s Turkophobia policy to the agenda within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States;
The Government of France’s resolutions do not change the outcome of the ‘Patriotic War’ and they may be a further blow to the Armenian people.
Since the 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, France has grown increasingly supportive of Armenia and even more so after the short burst of fighting in September 2022.
How Successful is the Armenian Lobby in France?
It is becoming clear that French President Emanual Macron has failed as a mediator between Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. It is better for France to stay out of this conflict which it is fueling rather than dowsing, thanks to the efforts of the Armenia lobby.
