Doesn’t the French Senate want to condemn President Macron for the anti-Artsakh deal in Prague?

On January 17, the French Senate will debate a motion for a resolution to condemn Azerbaijan’s military offensive in Artsakh and prevent any further attempts at aggression and violation of the territorial integrity of Armenia.

The news comes as the propaganda machine of the current authorities once again promotes its narrative that “one of our unique strengths is the support of the civilized world.” But let’s figure out if this support “on the ground” actually exists or if this is another myth, akin to the one that “by surrendering Artsakh, Armenia will ensure its territorial integrity”:

1. The French Senate has previously passed resolutions demanding not only to punish official Baku but even to “confiscate the property of the Aliyev clan.” Moreover, on November 25, 2020, the French Senate adopted a resolution calling on the French government to recognize the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

2. The French Foreign Ministry’s reaction to the November 25 resolution was immediate. It released a statement saying that official Paris does not recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. “During the [Senate] debate preceding the vote, Mr. Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Secretary of State for Tourism, French People Abroad, and the Francophonie, recalled the French government’s position on this issue: France does not recognize the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” the 3-year-old statement said.

3. Almost immediately after the vote in the French Senate, Nikol Pashinyan made a statement on its results, calling this resolution a “historic decision.”

However, what happened next? In October 2022 in Prague, Nikol Pashinyan, with the encouragement of French President Emmanuel Macron, recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, which gave official Baku an excuse to first impose a blockade of the Lachin corridor and then wage war against Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023.

By participating in the anti-Artsakh conspiracy, Macron violated the recommendations set out in the resolution of the Senate of his own country.

In this context, we need to understand: doesn’t the French Senate intend to adopt a resolution condemning the participation of its President Emmanuel Macron in the Prague anti-Artsakh conspiracy of 2022?

Let’s leave aside the fact that the French company TotalEnergies produced 0.6 billion cubic meters of gas from the Azerbaijani gas and condensate field “Absheron” in the Caspian Sea only in July–November 2023, transferring millions of dollars to the budget of Azerbaijan, and look into French resolutions concerning Artsakh and Armenia as a whole.

Until the morning of September 27, 2020, the Armenian side had a de facto statehood in Artsakh with all its corresponding attributes, including the army, executive, legislative, and judicial authorities, local governments, the Constitution, state symbols, etc. The formation of power took place in accordance with all international democratic standards. The only thing missing was international recognition. This is what Armenia was fighting for until 2018.

After the 2020 war, even if the French Senate—or state body of any other country in the world—recognized the independence of Artsakh, then, in the absence or destruction of statehood, the Armenian side would receive recognition, but without real statehood. This is exactly the essence of the issue concerning resolutions on Artsakh after the 2020 war.

The authorities offer us to exchange our Artsakh, the most real thing that Armenia and the Armenian people have created decades after independence, for a piece of A4 paper.

They offered it in the case of Artsakh, and now they will do it in the case of Armenia.

The authorities propose to compensate for their foreign policy failure and threats from Ilham Aliyev with a pile of papers.

Think about it…