In the world of politics, when the strong try in vain to ride those who they mistake for wimps and outsiders, they end up in a stupor, slipping into inconsolability. This is a sign of helplessness.
The colonialist antics of Emmanuel Macron’s France are, in their own way, corpses that someone forgot to put to eternal rest. Putting a stake on a political rudiment is a disgrace to Paris, and intransigent President Macron is burying himself alive. His “Azerbaijani syndrome” is wearing him down. He cannot break through the diplomatic citadel of Ilham Aliyev.
In the course of the 44-day war, the President of Azerbaijan shattered the Ohanyan line, the one that French campaigns played a major role in building. Macron, however, cannot overcome Aliyev’s powerful political redoubts, making him furious and stepping on the old rake of helplessness.
He is sinking himself and dragging his crew members, his diplomatic corps, with him.
Only idiots and insane people persistently do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Albert Einstein’s rational thought seems to apply to Macron’s team, as they search in vain for ways to overcome the Ilham Aliyev dilemma.
Not only have numerous attempts at deception and provocations used by the French President in the format of the peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict failed, they have also exposed the pathetic nature of Macron’s diplomacy. He has driven himself into a corner, incurring immeasurable image costs.
The exposure of Paris’s spy network in Azerbaijan alone was a stinging slap in the face for the French establishment, which suffered public humiliation in the eyes of the international community. But even this failure was not a lesson to Macron, who continues to disgrace his country, making it a laughing stock in front of the whole world.
After getting a cascading fiasco from Baku, Paris is now rushing into a new maelstrom of unpredictability and persistently pumping the military muscles of a semi-collapsed Armenia. By all indications of the current situation, one thing is clear: France is preventing Irevan from integrating into the regional network.
Nikol Pashinyan is blindly following the French gamble, not realizing that it is leading his decrepit country into a dead end. It will not be easy to get out of it. But there can be no doubt that France is doing the country a disservice by nurturing Armenian vices.
“France undertakes obligations to Armenia in the field of defense,” French Ambassador to Armenia Olivier Decottignies proudly declares, thus creating a solid base for problematic articles to dominate over advantageous ones. But Paris has nothing to lose, on the contrary, it is capitalizing on its criminal courtesy to the people of Armenia.
One can find some rationality in France’s intensive cooperation with Armenia in recent months in the sphere of defense and military technology, if one does not consider the topic in the context of the confrontation between Irevan and Baku. The nefarious implication of the French initiative is that Macron is preparing Armenians for new clashes with Azerbaijan by taking them further away from the peace plan.
Foaming at the mouth, the Ambassador brags that his country is not leaving Armenia on its own, building an umbrella of protection for it. But he does not specify the most important thing: how much money all this costs the Hay tribe.
The reciprocal visits of the defense ministers of Armenia and France, arranged in a rather pompous manner, made it possible to create a proper entourage. However, “certain results in terms of equipment and retraining of military personnel for the good of the Armenian army”, as the diplomat says, will only be justified if the subject under the tutelage of Paris does not fall flat on its face.
France, as is well known, was the first NATO country to break the taboo and start supplying arms to a CSTO member country. Ambassador Decottignies speaks of this enthusiastically. But is it so important for the geopolitical stability of Armenia itself?
It would be understandable if Baku were really threatening Irevan. Azerbaijan is not going to go to war with the country it brought to its knees by depriving it of almost 70% of its combat power in 2020. Why deceive and provoke Armenia to get involved in a military gamble again? Is it combat ready? No, of course not.
But Paris has set out to make the impossible possible, so it is forcing its vassal into a new dangerous escalation.
Jumping the gun, Mr. Decottignies claims that “Baku’s concerns about the French campaign of militarization of Armenia have been justified.” In his mind, Azerbaijan is gripped by panic and is experiencing moral discomfort from Armenia’s strengthening. Not even close.
The French ambassador to Armenia only deludes himself that the ill-advised steps taken by his government are justified. “If the French weapons supplied to Armenia had no combat purpose, Azerbaijan would not make claims every time,” the diplomat argues, not realizing that he is talking nonsense.
Baku never makes claims, but demands that Irevan treat the letter of international law with respect. This has been the case before, and in the future, if Armenia breaks the rules of the game, Azerbaijan will pull no punches. If Armenia wants a peaceful life, it must respect the fundamental principles of the world order.
And the concept of good-neighborliness, it seems, is not for Armenians. Macron and his associates are well aware of this, which is why they are preparing the Hay tribe not for peace with their neighbors, but for eternal strife, or even a harakiri.
What can you do, Pashinyan is not Aliyev, who has a strong position which he successfully defends. That takes talent and skill.
Tofig Abbasov
Translated from Minval.az
