French senators urge to cancel agreements with Nagorno-Karabakh separatists

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

French senators have appealed to the country’s foreign ministry to cancel agreements signed with the separatist regime of Nagorno-Karabakh, established in Armenian occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Senators Nathalie Goulet and Andre Reichardt called on the foreign ministry to hold talks with the leadership of the French provinces where the agreements were signed, during a visit by the head of the separatist regime in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Reichardt, who is chairman of France-South Caucasus friendship group made the remarks during a press conference in Baku on June 13.

“France condemns the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories and considers this fact unacceptable,” he said, adding that this issue is not fully covered by French media.

Earlier, Reichardt assessed the visit of the head of the separatist regime in Azerbaijan’s occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region to France as a diplomatic incident.

He addressed letter of protest in connection with the visit to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabiusand, Minister of Decentralization, Administrative reform, and Civil Service Marylise Lebranchu.

Bako Sahakyan, the head of puppet separatist regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, held meetings with officials in France on May 17-19.

Baku has already voiced its objection over the visit of representatives of the separatist regime and sent a note to France to protest the meetings with Sahakyan’s delegation.

Paris, in turn, ruled out recognizing the separatist regime of Nagorno-Karabakh, established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding provinces.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless thus far.