Such attempts promise only fiasco for France

France's prejudice against Azerbaijan continues. Of course, there is a decent answer to this prejudice. The attitude of the press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of our country, Aykhan Hajizade, to the statement of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France regarding the arrest of a French citizen gives reason to say this. A. Hajizadeh emphasized that the claims of the other party have no basis: "This baseless statement is a distortion of reality, another attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan and the legal investigation process."

It should be noted that French citizen Martin Rian was arrested on December 4 of last year on suspicion of committing the act stipulated in Article 276 (espionage) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Later, a court decision was issued regarding him and he was ordered to be detained for a period of 4 months. A. Hajizade pointed out that national legislation and international obligations were fully observed while taking measures against that person. He said that consular employees of the French Embassy visited M. Rian several times and were fully informed about the criminal case.

The official of the ministry also emphasized that the Azerbaijani MFA sent a verbal note to the high diplomatic mission for the purpose of investigating the issue of the said person's cooperation with two employees of the French embassy. However, the other party did not give an explanation in the current direction and avoided cooperation in the investigation: "In this regard, these two employees of the embassy were declared "undesirable persons" by Azerbaijan," said A. Hajizadeh. emphasis. This position is unacceptable and must be stopped. The second and most important point is France's attempt to interfere in Azerbaijan's internal affairs. This is the main issue.

Yes, France took the path of interfering in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan. The matter is quite serious. As it is known, in the third decade of December last year, the State Security Service of our country exposed the French spy network in Azerbaijan. After that, two employees of the French embassy in our country were declared "persona-non-grata" (undesirable person). Azerbaijan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jeyhun Bayramov, at a press conference held near the end of last year, although he did not dwell on the news spread about the exposure operation, so to speak, said that before a decision was made regarding the diplomats, the French Embassy had "serious facts about their two employees in the Azerbaijani state authorities". a note was given.

J. Bayramov also emphasized that the current state of relations between the two countries is bad after Azerbaijan and France declared two diplomats of each other "persona-non-grata". Let's take into account that on December 27, Paris officially declared two employees of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in France as undesirable persons. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the official Baku, rejected the accusations against the French diplomats. In return, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan announced that the official Paris did not show any grounds for declaring the diplomats of our country "undesirable persons".

J. Bayramov said that the consent of that state is required to conduct an investigation on persons with diplomatic immunity. "If France, as they say, was sure of the innocence of its employees, they could have created an opportunity for this investigation," said the minister. In other words, "persona-non-grata" declared against Azerbaijani diplomats is not correct, it is just a spontaneous response. By the way, this point is evident from the statement released by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "France takes into account the decision to declare two employees of the French embassy in Azerbaijan "persona non grata" by Azerbaijan. Official Paris categorically rejects the accusations put forward by the Azerbaijani side in order to justify its decision. As a response, France declared two employees of the Azerbaijani embassy in France "persona non grata".

Apparently, J. Bayramov is right. France does not provide any evidence. Also, as A. Hajizade stated, the country cannot justify its interference in Azerbaijan's internal affairs with anything. There is interference in internal affairs and it is known that this is caused by the pro-Armenian position of the country. In recent months, Azerbaijan has been emphasizing more often that France is conducting a biased and militarized policy in the region. In the current issue, J. Bayramov's accusation of "Azerbaijanophobic and anti-Azerbaijani position" in last year's press conference is also noteworthy. This is a situation that will become more apparent starting from October 2022. Thus, at that time, French President Emmanuel Macron made some allegations against Azerbaijan in an interview with "France-2" TV channel. He said that Moscow is busy inciting the tension between Baku and Yerevan in favor of the former. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev called the words of his French colleague "offensive, unacceptable, false and provocative" and emphasized that with such an approach, Paris is leaving itself outside the Azerbaijan-Armenia normalization process.

In addition, President Ilham Aliyev, considering that France has committed biased actions that seriously disrupt regional peace and stability in the South Caucasus, jeopardizes the common policy of the European Union in the region, and pursues a policy of militarization, last October in Granada, Spain, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the European Union, France and refused to participate in the five-party meeting envisaged in the German format.

It should be noted that the signing of the military cooperation agreement between France and Armenia is also a point that displeases and seriously worries Azerbaijan. Our country considers this step of the Macron administration as a destructive activity in the region. Contrary to the claims of the French officials, it is clear as day that the weapons given to Armenia by the country are not defensive at all.

In general, Paris is the initiator of the tension between France and Azerbaijan. It is clear that France has directed all its diplomatic efforts to organizing provocations against Azerbaijan in the international organizations it has been a member of for the past three years, and that it has taken an obvious pro-Armenian position. It is safe to say that the extent to which the tension will rise depends on the future steps of France.

As J. Bayramov emphasized last year, our country never wanted to take a step against Paris. On the contrary, he has always been a supporter of maintaining relations. France should think about this in the current situation, reconsider the policy of Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus, make effective changes, and most importantly, as A. Hajizade emphasized, it should stay away from interfering in the internal affairs of our country. The sooner he realizes this, the better. Because the current policy promises a new fiasco for Paris.

A. JAHANGIROGLU
XQ