Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has criticized France for sending military aid to Armenia, warning that it could trigger a new conflict in the South Caucasus.
During a telephone conversation with European Council President Charles Michel on Saturday, Aliyev said that “the anti-Azerbaijani statement adopted by the European Parliament on the basis of a xenophobic and chauvinistic approach and the opinions expressed in it were unacceptable.”
“The provision of weapons by France to Armenia was an approach that was not serving peace, but one intended to inflate a new conflict, and if any new conflict occurs in the region, France would be responsible for causing it,” Aliyev added, according to the Azerbaijani presidential office.
Michel expressed the bloc’s commitment to the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization process ahead of a trilateral meeting in Brussels by the end of October.
“We believe in diplomacy and political dialogue. This is why we invite Azerbaijani President and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for the meeting,” Michel said following a quadrilateral meeting with the Armenian president on the sidelines of the European Political Community meeting in Granda, Spain.
Aliyev did not participate in the European Political Community meeting, which was an initiative of Macron to which leaders from more than 40 European countries were invited, in protest against France’s recent military and diplomatic support of Armenia.
Hikmet Hajiyev, the foreign policy advisor to the Azerbaijani president said Baku had proposed the participation of Turkey and Spain in the planning meeting, but that proposal was also rejected by France.
France has recently agreed on future contracts with Armenia to supply it with military equipment “to help ensure its defenses,” French foreign minister Catherine Colonna said on October 3 during a visit to Yerevan.
Last month, Azerbaijan regained control over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has always been internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan though it is mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, following a three-decade-old conflict between Baku and Yerevan over the long-troubled territory.
Through its military operation, the Azerbaijani military managed to easily rout pro-Armenian forces in 24 hours and made the separatists agree to lay down weapons, under a Russian-mediated ceasefire.
