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Paris (AFP)
On Wednesday, the French Senate adopted a non-binding resolution calling on the government to “recognize the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh,” the separatist region of Azerbaijan inhabited by the majority of Armenians and which witnessed in the fall of a war in which Baku managed great victories on the ground at the expense of Yerevan.
The motion for a resolution garnered the support of 305 members of the Senate, which is dominated by the right-wing opposition, while only one member voted against and 30 abstained.
Azerbaijan and Armenia exchanged accusations of having committed war crimes during the six-week war in the separatist region.
In its resolution, the French Senate said that it “condemns the Azerbaijani military aggression carried out with the support of the Turkish authorities and foreign mercenaries, and calls for the immediate withdrawal” of the Azerbaijani armed forces from the lands that the Armenians lost control since on September 27 in the Nagorno Karabakh region.
Likewise, the resolution “calls on the (French) government to recognize the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh” and “do everything in its power to resume without delay the discussions within the Minsk Group (…) aimed at reaching a Negotiated and lasting solution to the conflict that guarantees the reestablishment of the borders that are demarcated in 1994 “.
The resolution also urges the government to strive “to protect the population through the deployment of an international separation force” and “the provision of massive humanitarian aid to the civilian population.”
In its resolution, the Senate also calls on the French government to “request an international investigation into the war crimes committed in Nagorno Karabakh” and to “draw all diplomatic conclusions on the role played by the Turkish authorities” in the conflict.
During the session, Senator Bruno Ritayo, head of the Republican bloc (a right-wing opposition), launched a violent attack on “the decisive and widespread participation of Erdogan’s Turkey (in the conflict) in the name of a national Islamic policy.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that he wanted “international oversight” of the ceasefire agreement signed on November 10 by Azerbaijan and Armenia under the auspices of Russia.
© 2020 AFP
