Azerbaijan to blacklist French city mayor for illegal Karabakh visit

  22 October 2018    Read: 1835
Azerbaijan to blacklist French city mayor for illegal Karabakh visit

Baku strongly condemns the visit of the mayor of the French city of Saint-Étienne to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan told AzVision.az

This step taken by the local authority of France in a breach of norms and principles of international law, the Azerbaijani legislation, as well as the as the national legislation of France serves to promoting the illegal separatist regime created by Armenia on the occupied Azerbaijani territories, said the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

“The mayor of the city of Saint-Étienne is accompanied during this illegal visit by François Rochebloine, a person notoriously known for his bias position against Azerbaijan and acting under influence of the Armenian lobby in France,” the statement read.

“We refer to the Circular on the legal framework of external actions of local authorities signed by the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France on May 24, 2018, and recall that the local authorities are prohibited from interacting in any form, including concluding agreements, carrying out visits and holding joint actions with the separatist authorities of territorial entities which have not been recognized by France.”

The Azerbaijani foreign ministry underlined that the allegedly signed “Friendship Statement” during this illegal visit does not have any legal basis.

Such illegal steps of the local authorities of France seriously undermine the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, where France is represented, to find a solution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict via negotiations and the image of France as a mediator, said the statement.

“We call the Government of France to take necessary measures to restraint its local authorities from any actions serving the strengthening of the current situation of status quo created as a result of the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories and urge them to unconditionally implement the provisions of its legislation,” according to the statement.

The foreign ministry also noted that the name of the French citizen Gaël Perdriau will be included to the list of the persons whose entry to the Republic of Azerbaijan is denied, for conducting the illegal visit to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in violation of the Azerbaijani legislation.


More about: Foreign-Ministry   Nagorno-Karabakh   blacklist  


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