Does Yerevan decide instead of Paris?

By Leyla Tariverdiyeva

Until recently, it was like this: some could do everything, others could not do anything; some were always right, others were always guilty; some were not subject to jurisdiction by default, others were constantly at the center of criticism. Azerbaijan broke this rule and immediately found itself under crossfire. Baku dared to take independent steps without consulting the “elders”, and even allowed itself to criticize these “elders”. This has never happened before in history. Typically, smaller and weaker countries try not to anger bigger and stronger ones; as a rule, they join the retinue and only then cast their votes from behind the overlords and with their permission.

Yes, we are talking about France again. This country would not have had the honor of appearing so often in the Azerbaijani media if it had not expressed itself biased and unhealthy attention to our country. The day before, the French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malik, showed up in Armenia and promised support and satisfaction of small Armenian whims. As Minister of Culture, Madame Abdul-Malik focused on “the cultural heritage of artsakh.” That is on so-called Armenian historical and cultural monuments located in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan. The minister assured that she would raise the issue of preserving and protecting the “historical and cultural heritage” of Armenians in Garabagh at all possible international platforms. “We must spare no effort to do everything possible to ensure that this issue receives due attention,” she said.

An interesting nuance - a certain company "Alif" (from the name of the first letter of the Arabic alphabet), engaged in the protection and preservation of historical and cultural heritage, has prepared satellite images of supposedly Armenian monuments in Garabagh, which will be used to verify how these monuments have changed and whether they are still there at all . It seems that Paris is thinking of putting pressure on Baku with its thick photo album.

The Armenians claim that in the small space where the Armenian minority lived, there are as many as 5 thousand of their monuments and 30 museums. Here it is important to clarify what the Armenian side understands by cultural heritage. Let us not now delve into why, by definition, there cannot be any historical heritage of Armenians in the territories of Azerbaijan. What is more interesting is what exactly the Armenians themselves mean by their supposed heritage. For example, a month ago, all Armenian media wrote with tears about the “destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage” in Hadrut. An “accusatory” video was posted and an angry text was attached that a monument to the Armenian occupiers had been demolished in one of the villages. That is, the khachkars and the monument erected in memory of the scoundrels who shed the blood of the Azerbaijani people are classified as “cultural heritage.” Well, there really will be several thousand such “heritage” in the liberated territories, but the Armenians should not hope to preserve them, despite the width of the French back. As for the really ancient churches and monasteries, these are altered Albanian temples are currently under the protection of the Azerbaijani police to avoid provocations. Moreover, provocations from the Armenians themselves.

The French Minister of Culture made many promises to the Armenians. She arrived in Yerevan accompanied by a landing party of lobbyists from the National Assembly - deputy Anne Genet and head of the France-Armenia friendship group Anne-Laurence Petel. The dyed blondes in the video posted on the X social network smile happily while posing in the cabin of the plane. They, as reported in the tweet, are flying to protect the heritage of the Armenians, which is in danger. Well, and at the same time develop cooperation. It is no coincidence that the second task is placed on the second line. The main purpose of the trip is to develop a plan of action against Azerbaijan, discuss how to involve UNESCO in the campaign and at what moments Armenians should cry louder in order to make a greater impression.

UNESCO's headquarters are in Paris, and the Minister of Culture did not have to go far to appeal to the organization to seek permission from Baku to visit the liberated areas in order to document the “Armenian heritage.” The French Ministry of Culture simply needs to know the location of the “ancient” khachkars, which were made during the occupation in Garabagh itself. We never tire of being amazed at how much the affairs of the Armenians captured the attention of Paris. After the 44-day War, the French side also tried to send a UNESCO monitoring mission to Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijan ruined everything by stipulating the organization of a parallel mission to monitor the state of Azerbaijani heritage in Armenia. It goes without saying that such a mission could not take place. By dragging UNESCO into provocations now, Madame Abdul-Malik must understand that this is a hopeless endeavor. Recently, the Western Azerbaijan Community, after repeated requests to UNESCO for help in preserving Azerbaijani heritage in Armenia, finally received a response. The letter, signed by the head of the organization, emphasized that the issue raised by the Community about the state of the Azerbaijani cultural heritage on the territory of Armenia is directly related to the mandate of UNESCO and that the organization is actively addressing this issue using appropriate mechanisms in this area. Did you understand anything? A very flowery answer, but something is clear: the organization cannot conduct monitoring on the territory of Armenia without its consent. But Yerevan does not and will not give consent, because it has nothing to show. Any questions?

France has always supported Armenia and what is happening today is not new. Before she somehow tried to veil her behavior, but now she acts too demonstratively. There is something unnatural and artificial about this. Perhaps the fact is that the foreign policy of Paris is now controlled from Yerevan. Suspicions about this arose even when the French Senate unanimously voted to recognize the separatist entity in Garabagh. Such unanimity looks very strange for a country in which only one in a thousand will be able to find Armenia and Azerbaijan on a map. Now a whole crowd of lobbyists has flown to Yerevan and is making statements there that, in general, disgrace France. Although we do not rule out that the French side does not consider this a discredit and is simply doing what it is used to.

The image of France, formed by the majority from old French comedies, is not nearly as sweet, romantic, noble and touching as the imagination draws. Oh, France, this is Alain Delon,, Louis de Funes, croissants, poached eggs and the standard 90x60x90. Civilization and high culture, bulging out of all the cracks and multiplied by the height of ideals and the birthright of “'liberty, equality, fraternity”. Getting to know this country through films that were beautifully dubbed and shortened in Soviet times did not, of course, reflect the real picture.

Meanwhile, France has never been distinguished by its whiteness and fluffiness. Let's not go too far into history. Much has been written and said about what the French did in Algeria. A huge amount of factual material has been collected, but President Macron said that he does not consider it necessary to ask forgiveness from Algeria for the period of colonization. Or more precisely, for the genocide of 10 million Algerians. 10 million! The French treated Guinea, their former colony, no better, which wished to become completely independent and not pay the so-called “colonial tax”. In 1958, the French, when leaving, destroyed all schools, hospitals, kindergartens, burned books and supplies of medicine, slaughtered all the livestock, poisoned fertile lands, destroyed shops, took everything that could be taken out of Guinea, and destroyed the rest. They explained this barbarity in Paris by the fact that the French created all this and therefore had the right to destroy it. The fact that for these schools and medicines France exploited the lands and people of Guinea for many years and still owed a lot to the latter was not taken into account.

And so on. France has a lot of crimes against humanity for which it has not answered and, more importantly, no one has ever asked it to answer. With the exception of only the victims themselves, whom the “civilized world” does not hear. Only Azerbaijan dared to tell the king that he was naked, and for this he brought a tsunami upon himself.

The President of France is not crawling before the diaspora. The impression is that he has abandoned all the affairs of his own country and is only concerned with the desires of the Armenians. This is probably the only audience where they are willing to listen to him. Although how do we know - maybe they throw eggs at him at Armenian gatherings. In any case, the Armenian-French tandem is firmly glued together by interests. Armenia is counting heavily on Paris in its games against Azerbaijan, and France hopes to cross the Armenian bridge to the South Caucasus. The only thing standing in the way of Paris's dream is Baku, and the French side is increasingly showing its rage at its inability to remove this obstacle.

“As for the activity of France, it is only pretending that it is a great power. The president of this country cannot even restore order in Paris and deal with pogroms. What can he do in the South Caucasus? Nothing,” Armenophile Modest Kolerov once said.

We never thought we would say this, but Kolerov is right.