The French demand an apology from Azerbaijan. Official Baku keeps silent

Baku/18.01.22/Turan: The National Independence Party of Azerbaijan has considered the demand of French figures to make apologies of President Ilham Aliyev to presidential candidate Valerie Pekres as another provocation directed against the Azerbaijani state, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The NIPA says it is important that the official state structures of Azerbaijan, including the Parliament and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, adequately treat the issue, that the persons who signed the appeal are considered undesirable and the relevant state structures of France, as well as its Ambassador in Azerbaijan, are warned about it.

Last Sunday "Le Journal du Dimanche" published an open letter to the President of France from the head of the French Senate fraction "Republicans" (LR) Bruno Rethayo, the head of the same fraction in the National Assembly of France Damian Abad, and the head of the same fraction in the European Parliament, European deputy Francois-Xavier Belami, signed by 242 other figures. The authors, in particular, called on the President of France to demand from the President of Azerbaijan to apologize to Valerie Pecres, presidential candidate of the French Republican Party, for his remarks of January 12 this year which he made due to her illegal visit to Karabakh.

The authors of the message state that in case an apology is not made as soon as possible, they demand the recall of the French Ambassador from Azerbaijan. "This is a matter of both French values and French honor."

The letter argues that Karabakh is allegedly not a sovereign territory of Azerbaijan and free Frenchmen have the right to visit it whenever they want.

On January 12, President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Azerbaijani TV channels that Valerie Pekres, together with European Commissioner for Internal Trade Michel Barnier and a French deputy, had secretly sneaked into Karabakh through the Lachin corridor (December 21-23, 2021 -ed) . "They went there secretly and returned. When they came back, the news came that they must have been afraid that we would stop them in the Lachin corridor. Because if we had known they were there, we definitely would not have allowed them to return."

On December 23, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry put Pekres and other French nationals on the list of persons banned from entering Azerbaijan for illegally visiting the country.  Due to this visit, the Charge d'Affaires of France in Azerbaijan was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was handed a note of protest.

The reaction of official Baku to the appeal of 242 French nationals to President Macron on January 15 was not expressed.-0-