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President Ilham Aliyev: During the war, frankly speaking, France was not behaving as an honest broker

resident of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev

28 September 2021 21:10 (UTC +04:00)

"France always was considered as a friendly country in Azerbaijan we had implemented a lot of economic and trade projects, infrastructure projects and relations developed very successfully," said President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in his interview to the French France 24 TV channel..

"We hope that as an honest broker, as a co-chair of the Minsk group France will be committed to this responsibility. If France was not a co-chair of the Minsk Group of course, any kind of relations between any kind of countries is up to them. And we know about the historical ties between France and Armenia, we know about the very active Armenian community in France, which to a certain degree may influence decision-makers. But during the war, frankly speaking, France was not behaving as an honest broker. France took sides; took side of Armenia, openly accusing Azerbaijan and in its statements and actions demonstrating one-sided approach. That was, of course, a matter of concern, and we raised this concern, because once again, I’d like to say, any country can have preferences, friends and not friends. It’s up to them. We have nothing to say. But if a country has a mandate from the OSCE to be a mediator, in this case, the country should be neutral. I don’t want to go back to what happened during the war and right after. We received positive signals from Paris about our future relations, and we positively respond to these signals.

There have been contacts on different levels, including the contact recently between foreign ministers of both countries. Azerbaijan has always been open to cooperation. France is one of the leading countries in the world, and we want to have normal relations. After one year has passed since the beginning of the war, I think now it’s time to have a very realistic approach to the region. What we want to achieve? And I am sure France wants peace, stability, security in the region, as we want, as hopefully Armenia wants, and we need to work on that. We need to concentrate on that, and not to go back to what happened during one year. As far as we are concerned, we are not going to exploit these very unpleasant developments. We want to turn the page," added Azerbaijani President.