Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova had a conversation with President of the National Assembly of France Yaël Braun-Pivet in Dublin.

At their meeting, Sahiba Gafarova criticised France’s biased attitude towards Azerbaijan, saying that a lopsided, biased attitude to the situation in the South Caucasus is less than helpful to the efforts to install lasting peace in our region.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova remembered the numerous declarations and resolutions by both chambers of the French parliament that had affected negatively the normalisation between Azerbaijan and Armenia and the peace process as a whole. Those documents contradicted the international law principles whilst also calling into question Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Indeed, all those steps supported separatism in our territory and emboldened the revanchist powers in Armenia.

Also, Mrs Gafarova recalled Yaël Braun-Pivet’s visit to Armenia in 2023, adding that the French speaker would have had a fine opportunity to learn the Azerbaijani point of view, too, had she travelled to Azerbaijan after Armenia. Speaker Gafarova brought to Mrs Braun-Pivet’s attention the fact that in all the 30 years we had never seen France condemn the Armenian occupation of the Azerbaijani territories and the sacking of our captured towns, villages and heritage, both historical and cultural. France has never spoken up about the rights of the 1 million Azerbaijanis who had faced the Armenian ethnic cleansing policy and had become refugees from Armenia and IDP from Garabagh.

Besides, Sahiba Gafarova informed Yaël Braun-Pivet of the local anti-terrorist measures taken by Azerbaijan, saying that, having recovered her lands from occupation, Azerbaijan had invited Armenia to normalise the relations and sign a peace treaty based on mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. Armenia, however, has spent three years resorting to every means thinkable of avoiding the signing: political and military provocations, a continued mining of our territories, violation of earlier agreements and the continued support to the illegal regime created on our lands.

Having stressed that Armenia had spent these past few months spreading the numerous false claims of ‘a blockade’ and ‘a humanitarian crisis’ in the Garabagh Region of Azerbaijan the world over, the Chair of the Milli Majlis recalled Armenia’s refusal to use either the Aghdam or the Lachin road, which was another political provocation premeditated to undermine the territorial integrity of our country.  

Azerbaijan repeatedly called on the international community to pay attention to the fact that the presence of 10,000-strong Armenian troops and the existence of an illegal separatist regime, both in the Garabagh Region of our country, were the principal hurdles to achievement of peace and stability in the region, simply because those powers had been committing provocations against our territories. On 19 September, the mines that Armenian subversion squads had planted to terrorist ends exploded killing and wounding civilians as well as military personnel.

The Speaker of the Milli Majlis emphasised that Azerbaijan had responded to all those provocations with a less than 24-hour-long local anti-terrorist measure targeting solely the illegal military groups and military infrastructure. The peaceful population and civilian facilities were never once targeted, and our troops never marched in civilian populated localities. According to Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister of Armenia, too, admitted that there was no immediate hazard to civilians and that the reports of any mass violence against civilian populace were unfounded.

No sovereign state would tolerate an unlawful military presence in its territory and Azerbaijan is no exception, Mrs Gafarova stressed.

The Armenian armed forces are being disarmed and their withdrawal from our territories continues today. Those troops have thousands of weapons and military equipment, which goes to show that Azerbaijan was right when appealing to international community about their removal from our lands.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova reminded the head of the French Parliament of the several letters to that effect that Mrs Gafarova had sent to Mrs Braun-Pivet as Head of the Parliament of Azerbaijan. Having met with her in the capital of Ireland now, Mrs Gafarova reiterated to her French colleague that Azerbaijan wanted peace and stability.

The Chair of the Milli Majlis told Mrs Braun-Pivet of the current dialogue about integrating the Armenian residents of Garabagh in the Azerbaijani society and that there had been two meetings of representatives of Azerbaijan and the Garabagh Armenian community in a short while. The Armenian populace of Garabagh are citizens of Azerbaijan; so, their rights will be provided as per the Azerbaijani legislation and the international obligations assumed by our country, according to Sahiba Gafarova. Nobody is forcing them to leave Garabagh. If anyone does want to depart, this is his or her own choice whilst Azerbaijan ensures their free passage and security, for its part.

Sahiba Gafarova also informed Yaël Braun-Pivet of the restoration of that territory’s infrastructure already initiated by Azerbaijan, the humanitarian aid including food, medicines and fuel sent to the population and the International Committee of the Red Cross carrying aid in by the Lachin and Aghdam roads.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis