“Deceptive and Provocative”: Aliyev on Macron’s Statement

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated during the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) that his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron is using backyard lexicon by claiming that “the Russian Federation has played an Azerbaijani game,” reports News.ru.

Aliyev described Macron's accusations against Russia for deliberately destabilizing the situation in the South Caucasus, as well as the claims against Azerbaijan for occupying the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, as “offensive, deceptive, unacceptable, and provocative.”

Furthermore, Aliyev addressed the quadrilateral meeting held in Prague on October 6, emphasizing that “even though the French president participated in it, France has no connection to the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

“France, as a co-chair of the Minsk Group, yes, had a mandate for a mediatory mission, but since the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is 'resolved', and there is 'no need for the services of the Minsk Group', especially since these services were, so to speak, ‘bear services’, as I already said, the Minsk Group has done nothing, and not a single centimeter was liberated from 'our territory',” said Aliyev.

According to him, Azerbaijan, “demonstrating goodwill, allowed the French president to participate in this meeting.”

It should be noted that President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of deliberately inciting the recent clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan to destabilize the situation in and outside the Caucasus region. In an interview with France 2 television, Macron stated that Moscow has intensified tensions in favor of Azerbaijan in recent months.

“What is happening at the border over the last two years... 5000 Russian soldiers are supposedly there to guarantee the border, (but) the Russians have used this conflict, which has a century-long history, played the Azerbaijani game with Turkey's complicity, and returned to weaken Armenia, which was once closely allied with them. Do you see what is happening? This is an attempt at destabilization by Russia; it wants to create disorder in the Caucasus to destabilize all of us,” Macron said.

Last week, Macron met with Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, and President of the European Council Charles Michel in Prague, during which it was decided to send an EU civilian mission to the border of the countries to assess the situation.