Last year, on the sidelines of the European Political Community Summit in Prague, there was a proposal to invite the President of France to that meeting between President Michel, Prime Minister Pashinyan and myself, I did not object. But, unfortunately, a week after the meeting - by the way, I consider it positively, because at that meeting, Prime Minister Pashinyan officially recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan but later, he made different statements, including those, which I already referred to this September, congratulating the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic”. At the same time, we considered as positive the result of the meeting in Prague,” said President Ilham Aliyev as he addressed the Forum titled "Karabakh: Back Home After 30 Years. Accomplishments and Challenges" co-organized by ADA University and the Center of Analysis of International Relations.

“We were ready to continue in this format. But unfortunately, a week after President of France in one of his TV interviews, used very strange and inappropriate wording about Azerbaijan. But what we've done. He actually cut himself from the process. Because our position was very clear. You can be a mediator, when you are neutral. If you take sides, you lose the chance to be a mediator. We cannot influence the country not to take sides. There are different reasons for that. But in this case, the chance to the mediator is lost. And we officially announced that we do not consider any longer, as appropriate, any participation of any representative of France in normalization process between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Therefore, and for that particular reason, I did not go to Granada,” the head of state emphasized.