On Tuesday, President Ilham Aliyev charged that by supplying Armenia, Azerbaijan’s longstanding enemy with whom it has fought two wars, France was fostering hostilities in the Caucasus.
Tensions over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh area, which Baku recaptured in September following a furious offensive against Armenian separatists, have plagued Baku and Yerevan for decades.
“(France) is pursuing a militaristic policy by arming Armenia, encouraging revanchist forces in Armenia, and laying the groundwork for provoking new wars in our region,” Aliyev said in written comments to an international conference in Baku.
In a statement read out by his foreign policy advisor, Aliyev said Paris was “disrupting stability not only in its former and current colonies, but also in the South Caucasus, where it is supporting separatist trends and separatists.”
Home to a large Armenian diaspora, France has been routinely criticized by Azerbaijan for harboring “pro-Armenian bias” in the Caucasus countries’ territorial conflict.
Aliyev doubled down on the criticism during a press conference with Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid on Monday.
He accused France of “playing a very destructive role in the Southern Caucasus.”
“The wrong messages from the French government create illusions in the Armenian government… that they can again launch a military aggression against Azerbaijan.”
He accused Armenia’s government of “thinking about revenge” after Azerbaijan regained control over the Nagorno-Karabakh region this fall.
