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MFA comments on provocative steps against Azerbaijan at Summit of Organization of Francophonie

19 November 2022 18:09 (UTC +04:00)

“Within the framework of the ongoing Summit of international Francophonie organization in Djerba, Tunisia, during the meeting of the ministers held on November 18, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan voiced a provocative and full of distortions statement on that the members of the Organization allegedly took a position against Azerbaijan,” says the opinion of Azerbaijani MFA, APA reports.

“During the preparation stage for the Djerba Summit, with the direct support of France, the initial texts of the Djerba Declaration, which are the final documents of the Summit, and the draft resolution dedicated to crisis situations in the Francophone area, included one-sided, biased and distorted provocative statements against Azerbaijan and were presented to the member states for discussion.

However, at the stage of the discussion of draft documents, as a result of the intervention of several member states, the mentioned expressions against our country were removed from the texts, and including any expression directly targeting Azerbaijan in the drafts was not allowed. However, in the final draft of the document, there are still certain elements that do not belong to the Organization's mandate and that give the possibility of incitement to the political propaganda tools of Armenia.

As part of the document reconciliation process, France took additional political pressures and deterrence steps beyond diplomatic practice against the countries protesting unilateral, biased, and distorted provisions against Azerbaijan. Despite these pressures, during the ministers’ meeting of member states to the International Francophonie organization on November 18, 2022, some member countries once again stated that they objected to the relevant clauses of the draft resolution and did not agree to the adoption of the document.

Despite this, neglecting the objections, violating decision-making procedures, and not taking into account the positions of the member states, it was stated that the draft document was approved for presenting to the Summit meeting. At this point, the representatives protesting the decision left the conference hall.

Note that such steps are unprecedented in international multilateral platforms and gross violation of procedure rules, once again demonstrating that the International Francophonie summit is France’s political tool to exercise pressure against other countries and undoubtedly it will seriously damage its reputation as an institution with a cultural profile.

It is completely unacceptable to discuss issues that are not related to its mandate and misuse for politically biased purposes an organization of which Azerbaijan is not a member and observer, whose main goal is the promotion of the French language and culture worldwide and which is managed under the influence of France.