Azerbaijan’s president accuses France of destabilizing South Caucasus by supporting separatists

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday accused France of destabilizing the South Caucasus region by supporting separatists.

“France destabilizes not only its past and present colonies but also our region, the South Caucasus, by supporting separatist tendencies and separatists,” Aliyev said in an address to participants of an international conference in Baku.

Aliyev said that France implements a “militaristic policy” by providing military aid to Armenia, while also accusing Paris of encouraging “revanchist forces” in Armenia, and preparing “the ground for the start of new wars in our region.”

Aliyev also accused France of continuing a policy of neocolonialism and committing “most of the bloody crimes in the colonial history of humanity.”

He went on to say that France should be “ashamed of its history of colonialism rich in bloody crimes,” but it talks about “fictitious ethnic cleansing in other countries” instead of “apologizing for the atrocities it has committed.”