France accuses Russia of heating up Armenia, Azerbaijan conflict

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.