Lagazetteaz.fr, founded by Trend News Agency in France, has published an article by its CEO Jean-Michel Brun that says that France supports Armenian separatism in Karabakh while arresting Corsicans for making similar demands.
According to the journalist, France has found a new excuse to criticize Azerbaijan: the current events in the Lachin corridor.
“This land corridor connecting Armenia to Karabakh is located in the territory of the sovereign state of Azerbaijan. A Russian peacekeeping contingent has been deployed in the area since the end of the 44-day war in November 2020.
“It is reported that this corridor is used to transport, apart from the supplies intended for the Armenian population remaining in Karabakh, weapons and equipment for the illegal exploitation of natural resources by the Armenians, including a gold mine and a copper-molybdenum deposit. Azerbaijani environmentalists are currently protesting on the Lachin road.
“These actions are the subject of bitter criticism on the part of France, who accuses Azerbaijan of depriving Khankendi of its main supply route.
“It is ironic that these criticisms from France are voiced as Corsican pro-independence activists are being arrested and imprisoned in Paris on charges of terrorism, while Armenian paramilitary groups are seen as freedom fighters,” Brun stresses.
The author asks: if some 20,000 Karabakh Armenians are the focus of all this attention, how can 400,000 Corsicans be denied their demand for independence from Paris?
“In fact, according to Arayik Harutyunyan, the number of Armenians remaining in Karabakh is not much higher than that. In order to give substance to the matter, the French speak of 100,000 Armenians in Karabakh, an outdated figure that probably dates back to the last Soviet census of 1989, which represented the total population of the inhabitants of Karabakh (Armenians and Azerbaijanis). But a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then, including the violent expulsion of all Azerbaijanis from Karabakh, numbering about 40,000 at the time. This was followed by a mass emigration of Karabakh Armenians in search of a better life in Russia or elsewhere.
“Apparently, there are good and bad independentists and separatists. Those in Corsica are clearly bad… So who will come to the aid of the Corsican independentists to take up the role that France proposes to play in Karabakh?” the article says.
