Azerbaijan Blacklists French Lawmakers Over Artsakh Visit

YEREVAN — Azerbaijan has said it will blacklist seven French lawmakers, who visited Nagorno Karabakh earlier this week. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has summoned Chargé d’Affaires of France to hand him a note of protest. It said that such “illegal” trips to “occupied territories of Azerbaijan” undermine peace efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States.

The six deputies of the French lower house of parliament and one senator met with Karabakh’s leaders, visited local cultural and educational institutions and laid flowers at a war memorial in Stepanakert during the three-day trip. They also spoke in the Karabakh parliament.

Bako Sahakian, the Karabakh president, reportedly told them on Wednesday that the Armenian-populated region is “interested in further development of cooperation with France.”

The multi-partisan delegation was headed by Guy Teissier, the chairman of the France-Artsakh Circle of Friendship in the French parliament. It also comprised fellow pro-Armenian deputy Valerie Boyer, Mohamed Laqhila, Jean Pierre Cubertafon, Pierre Ouzoulias and two ethnic Armenian lawmakers, Daniele Cazarian and Guillaume Kasbarian. The latter are affiliated with French President Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique En Marche party.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan praised the lawmakers when he met with them in Yerevan on Friday evening.

“We highly appreciate your activities which testify to privileged French-Armenian relations,” Pashinyan said. “We are grateful for your support of the rights of the Artsakh (Karabakh) people and for our principled stance, consistency and resolve.”

Boyer and Teissier, who both represent France’s opposition Republicans party, had already been blacklisted by Azerbaijan after travelling to Karabakh in 2011.

Boyer scoffed at the Azerbaijani protest note. “Azerbaijan still practices the policy of threats,” she tweeted earlier on Friday.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry also denounced the Azerbaijani reaction. “Human rights are about human beings and this also applies to the people living in Artsakh,” said the ministry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalyan. She accused Baku of trying to “dehumanize” the Karabakh Armenians.