By Rachel Avraham
In recent days, the French Senate voted 305 to 1 to adopt an advisory resolution calling for France to recognize Artsakh, an entity ruled by separatists. This French resolution was passed, even though the French Foreign Ministry stressed that France will not recognize the Republic of Artsakh despite its passage and French President Emmanuel Macron proclaimed that “international law recognizes that Karabakh is Azerbaijani territory.” It is of utmost importance that France and other important members of the international community refrain from recognizing the independence of Artsakh.
For starters, international law does not recognize the independence of Artsakh. Presently, the Artsakh regime occupies part of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region in violation of four UN Security Council resolutions, which all call upon Armenia to unconditionally withdraw from this territory. The Nagorno-Karabakh region was seized from Azerbaijan illegally in the 1990’s in the framework of a war of aggression that culminated in the Khojaly genocide. One million Azerbaijanis are internally displaced to this day from this conflict.
Azerbaijanis have been subjected to mass ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories. Armenians who were later relocated to these areas do not want Azerbaijanis to live there. This is a gross violation of human rights. Indeed, such an action does nothing more than weaken the sanctity of the Geneva Conventions and the desire of all freedom-loving people to fight against ethnic cleansing. It is for this reason that not a single country recognizes Artsakh, including Armenia itself.
For this reason, the Assistant to Azerbaijan’s President Hikmet Hajiyev said: “Adopted for narrow political ambitions, this piece of paper grossly violates international law, the UN Charter and relevant UN Security Council resolutions, and raises serious questions about France’s intensions and objective activities as a co-chair of the Minsk Group and a permanent member of the UN Security Council.” The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry added even though the resolution in the French Senate has no legal force, “given the political significance of the resolution, the imposition of such a resolution by a country with a mediating mandate seriously casts doubt on the country’s neutrality. It also undermines France’s reputation as a fair mediator in Azerbaijani society.”
Aside from the international legal dimension, nothing should be done to sabotage the peace agreement that was recently signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The fate of peace and security in the Caucasus depends upon it. Under the cease-fire deal, Azerbaijan was able to reclaim the seven Azerbaijani districts that they lost to Armenia in the 1990’s and all occupied territories including the historically important city of Shusha, which is known as the “Jerusalem of the Caucasus.”
The Russian-backed cease-fire deal that ended 44 days of brutal fighting presently is the best chance that both Azerbaijan and Armenia have for regional peace and security. During the 44 days of fighting, the Azerbaijani government reported that 93 civilians were killed and 407 others were injured. Furthermore, 504 civilian facilities, 3,326 private homes and 120 apartment buildings in Azerbaijan were also damaged due to Armenia targeting civilian population centers. An additional 40,000 Azerbaijanis were displaced during the fighting. On the Armenian side, 1,200 Armenian soldiers were killed and 40 civilians lost their lives.
If the conflict had continued, many more Azerbaijanis and Armenians would have perished. For this reason, no unilateral actions should be taken by a foreign government to sabotage this peace agreement. Otherwise, many more lives will be at risk once again. Therefore, the Armenians should immediately stop lobbying for international recognition of the Republic of Artsakh and Western countries should stop giving into the demands of this lobby, as one cannot obtain peace via unilateral actions.
Furthermore, it should be stressed that the Armenians are not in a political position where they can ask foreign governments to recognize Artsakh. Aside from not possessing the legal title to the land under international law, towards the end of the fighting, the Armenians could have lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh, for their military strength has proven to be inferior to that of today’s Azerbaijan. This is a fact that even Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan acknowledged when he spoke of the importance of saving Armenian soldiers before holding onto lands. Therefore, this peace agreement was a pivotal lifeline for the Armenian people.
Due to precisely this reason, the Armenians should be taking actions to bolster the peace agreement with the backing of Moscow, rather than continuing along the path of engaging in unilateral declarations in the parliaments of foreign nations. After all, it was their refusal to compromise peacefully, their blatant violation of four UN Security Council resolutions and their wanton attacks against Azerbaijan starting last July that led to the present situation, where they lost control of part of the occupied territories. If they had not started to attack Azerbaijani soldiers far away from the frontlines last July, then this whole Second Karabakh war would have never started.
As Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev noted, the Armenians were the ones who started the conflict: “The Armenian armed forces committed another military provocation against Azerbaijan. We have losses as a result of this provocation, both among the civilian population and the military. This once again this shows that Armenia’s policy of aggression against Azerbaijan continues, and this policy shows the fascist nature of Armenia to the whole world. As soon as I received the information, I contacted the Minister of Defense and the heads of other relevant agencies, gave relevant instructions, and on the basis of these instructions, the Azerbaijani Army launched a large-scale counter-offensive”.
Thus, even though international law was on the Azerbaijani side, the Azerbaijani government waited till they were attacked before launching the operation to retake what was rightfully theirs.
Dilbadi Gasimov, the Representative of the Azerbaijani Diaspora in France, added: “Obviously, the Senate made such a decision under pressure from the Armenian lobby. There are a number of political reasons for this. This is also a document adopted against Turkey. In addition, the Senate utilized Islamophobia in France to describe this war as a religious war. Of course, this is unacceptable.” Azerbaijan is a secular, multi-cultural country, with zero jihadist intentions.
Considering these facts, it is absurd that the French Senate has called for the recognition of the Artsakh and other measures that are in line with the Armenian lobby, at a time when France must be neutral so that it can best encourage and foster a peace agreement. As the spokesman for French Secretary of State at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne declared, France “has to work on looking for a political settlement of the conflict. The outcome of these negotiations could not be determined unilaterally in advance.” Considering this, any declaration by the French Senate recognizing the Republic of Artsakh is a strategic mistake, which advances nothing except further undermining France’s position as co-chair of the OSCE MINSK group and that does nothing to further Europe’s strategic interests.
