Baku, after Macron's statements, considers it impossible for Paris to participate as a mediator in the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relationsBaku.
October 14th. INTERFAX - The EU tried to send a civilian mission to the Azerbaijani side of the border with Armenia, Baku strongly rejected it, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.
"On October 6, a quadrilateral meeting was held on the sidelines of the new platform of the European Political Community in Prague with the participation of the President of France, the President of the European Council, the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Azerbaijan. At the meeting, as a result of many hours of negotiations, we came to a decision on sending a 40-person EU civilian mission to the territory of Armenia near the Armenian-Azerbaijani border," Aliyev said at the CIS summit in Astana on Friday.
"Subsequently, we learned that their number would be 50 people. They will stay there for at least two months and the purpose of this mission, as we see it, and therefore we have agreed to this, is to help the parties draw the border, determine issues related to delimitation. There was an attempt to send this mission from the Azerbaijani side, which was strongly rejected by us," he said.
According to him, "therefore, the mission will be located on the territory of Armenia, in the area of responsibility of the CSTO." "Yesterday, the first group of European representatives arrived in Armenia to determine the deployment of this mission," the Azerbaijani President stressed.
In addition, Aliyev said that Baku sees no opportunity for Paris to participate as a mediator in the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations after the statements of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Aliyev said that a week after the meeting in Prague, the French president made unacceptable statements. "In these statements, he declared Azerbaijan to be engaged in a terrible war, thereby manipulating the facts, trying to mislead the French and world public," the Azerbaijani president said.
According to him, Azerbaijan waged a war (Karabakh - IF) on its internationally recognized territory. "Karabakh is recognized by the whole world as a part of Azerbaijan. We used the right to self-defense and restored our territorial integrity by force," he said.