BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 27
Trend:
The Administrative Court of Appeal of the French Lyon city has recently adopted three decisions on the liquidation of the previously signed illegal "cooperation agreements" in favor of Azerbaijan, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to France Rahman Mustafayev told Trend.
According to the ambassador, these decisions were signed among the French cities of Saint-Etienne, Bourg-Les-Valence, Desinne-Charpieu, and the previously Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani cities of Shusha and Khojavand.
By the decision of the Administrative Court of Appeal of the French city of Lyon, a solid legal basis was created to prevent the adoption of such illegal acts in the future with respect to the territory of Azerbaijan.
Commenting on the significance of the decisions of the Administrative Court of Appeal, the ambassador noted that, first of all, this is the decision of the highest court, which put an end to this issue.
“The "Charter of Friendship" with an unrecognized separatist regime was revoked; their signing contradicted the French Constitution and violated its international obligations. This is the "language" of the document,” the ambassador said.
“The Lyon Administrative Court of Appeal is the third French court of appeal after Paris and Versailles. Its decisions are essential, significant and influential on the political and legal circles of this country. On November 19, 2020, the Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal had already rejected an appeal on one of the illegal documents. Therefore, we believe that a solid legal basis has been created to prevent the adoption of such illegal acts in the future with respect to the territory of Azerbaijan,” Mustafayev noted.
“Finally, this decision has an important symbolic meaning. Lyon, along with Paris and Marseilles, is one of the three "capitals" of the Armenian diaspora in France. The Armenian diaspora waged a huge campaign to thwart our efforts. Mayors of leading cities, many MPs and senators from both opposition parties and the ruling "Forward, Republic!" (La République En Marche!) party take a hostile position towards our country,” the official said.
“It was in Lyon that an outrageous episode that is extremely rare in interstate practice took place, for which France should have blushed with shame – after a working visit to Lyon on February 21-22, 2019, our delegation headed by the Minister of Agriculture of Azerbaijan Inam Karimov, Vice-Mayor of Lyon George Kepenekian told the press that "Lyon has not cooperated and will never cooperate with Azerbaijan."
Unfortunately, then the French Foreign Ministry did not react to this in any way,” the ambassador stressed.
“It was in such an atmosphere that we had to work. But finally, it was in this city that the Administrative Court of Appeal made three decisions in our favor. And all our detractors will have to come to terms with them and learn, finally, to respect the laws of their own country,” Mustafayev added.