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Baku/13.10.22/Turan: France's President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia on Wednesday of purposefully provoking the recent clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan as part of an effort to destabilise the Caucasus region and beyond, Reuters reports.
The agency notes that at the end of September, the fiercest fighting broke out between the two post-Soviet countries, as a result of which more than 200 people were killed.
The fighting is related to decades-old hostilities over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, internationally recognised as a part of Azerbaijan, but until 2020 largely controlled by the majority ethnic Armenian population.
Moscow, which has a defence pact with Armenia and a military base there, deployed thousands of peacekeepers to the region after a ceasefire in 2020.
That reaffirmed its role as policeman and chief power broker in the volatile part of the former Soviet Union where Turkey also wields increasing influence thanks to its close alliance with Azerbaijan.
However, speaking to France 2 television on Wednesday Macron said Moscow had stoked tensions in recent months in favour of Azerbaijan.
"What's been happening on the border over the last two years ... 5,000 Russian soldiers are allegedly there to guarantee the border, (but) the Russians have used this conflict which dated back several centuries and played Azerbaijan's game with Turkish complicity and came back to weaken Armenia which was once a country it was close to," Macron said.
"You see what's happening? It's an effort by Russia to destabilise. It wants to create disorder in the Caucasus to destabilise all of us."
France, along with the United States and Russia are co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group that mediates over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Note that last week Macron down with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and European Council President Charles Michel to flesh out an agreement that will see a civilian EU mission head to the countries' border to assess the situation.
Politics
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On October 3, a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took place in Paris. According to a statement from the French presidency, Macron reaffirmed France's commitment to supporting Armenia's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the Armenian people's aspiration for peace and democracy.
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Comments made by the head of the FSB of Russia, Alexander Bortnikov, claiming that the EU Monitoring Mission in Armenia is engaged in intelligence activities against Russia and Iran, are "utter nonsense, lies, and manipulation typical of the Russian regime, which is trying to cover up its repeated failure to fulfill obligations to Armenia and promises made", Peter Stano, a representative of the European External Action Service, stated in response to Bortnikov's remarks in Astana during a meeting of security heads from CIS countries.
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Fazil Gasimov, an economist who has been on hunger strike for 113 days while in prison, has been suffering from 39 degrees body temperature since yesterday, his relatives told Turan on Friday following their visit to him at the medical facility of the penitentiary service. "Fazil could fall into a coma at any moment. He is just skin and bones. His immune system has weakened. Since yesterday, his temperature has not dropped below 39 degrees," said a family member.
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