Azerbaijan on Monday slammed French President Emmanuel Macron for “biased” remarks on its Karabakh region, which it said “undermined” the peace process with archrival Armenia.
"French President Emmanuel Macron's biased views reiterated during the Ambassadorial Conference of August 28 undermine the peace process, while creating the wrong impression on the current situation in the region and unilaterally defending Armenia," Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada said in a statement released by the ministry.
Hajizada said the opinion expressed by Macron during the conference based on allegations regarding the humanitarian situation in the region, "attests to the erroneous policy" of France.
Macron's condemnation of the 44-day conflict that led to the liberation of Azerbaijani lands is "not comprehensible," he remarked.
"Expressions such as ‘Lachin humanitarian corridor' by the French president, as well as coercive narrative, are unacceptable and disrespectful of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan," Hajizada added.
He said France is well aware of the daily passage of dozens of Armenian residents through the Lachin road and the border checkpoint, the proposal of the Aghdam-Stepanakert (Khankendi) road and other alternative routes, and the politicization of the use of the Lachin road by Armenia and persons presenting themselves as representatives of Armenian residents.
"Instead of encouraging the implementation of the agreements reached in this direction at the beginning of August, the opinions supporting the provocative steps of Armenia are among the factors that directly impede the process.
"It would be more useful for France, who states that in Prague they were authors of the EU mission and the initiative to recognize each other's borders under the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, to answer the question of why they did not come up with such initiatives for almost 30 years when the territories of Azerbaijan were under occupation," he added.
Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
In the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from Armenian occupation during 44 days of clashes. The war ended with a Russia-brokered peace agreement.
Despite ongoing talks over a long-term peace agreement, tensions between the neighboring countries rose in recent months over the Lachin road, the only land route giving Armenia access to the Karabakh region, where Azerbaijan established a border checkpoint in April on the grounds of preventing the illegal transport of military arms and equipment to the region.
In the meantime, the Azerbaijani Red Crescent sent 40 tons of flour to the Armenians in Karabakh’s Khankendi and surrounding areas, the agency’s Chair Novruz Aslan announced Tuesday.
The convoy carrying the supplies will use the Aghdam-Khankendi route, Aslan told reporters in Baku. “This is a humanitarian step and we hope it will be welcomed by the international community and the Armenians in Khankendi,” he added.
Stressing that the Red Crescent is a nongovernmental organization outside of political processes, Aslan assured they would continue helping Armenians in Karabakh.