The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan has issued another provocative statement, this time accusing France of efforts to “aggravate the tension” in South Caucasus. The Azerbaijan MFA made this accusation in a commentary on the statement made by France as a result of the phone conversation of the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, Catherine Colonna, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan.

"Regarding the claims that the Lachin road was allegedly kept under ‘blockade’ by Azerbaijan and as a result of which ‘Armenian residents are facing a serious humanitarian crisis,’ we once again remind that it is absurd to portray as a ‘blockade’ the activity of the Lachin border check-point established in accordance with Azerbaijan’s obligation to guarantee the safety of citizens, vehicles and cargo on the Lachin road, as well as to prevent the misuse of the Lachin road by Armenia for military and illegal economic purposes,” noted the statement of the Azerbaijan MFA.

Also, it expressed regret that the French side, following the “manipulations” of Armenia, does not support the agreements on the use of alternative routes, which were supported by the European Union and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“At the same time, the fact that the French side did not react to the violation of the agreement by Armenia and its subordinate separatist regime reached regarding the use of these alternative roads indicates the efforts of this country to further aggravate the tension in the region,” the Azerbaijani MFA added.

“Also, the French side is well aware that if the Armenian residents are really in need for daily necessities, for this purpose the Azerbaijani side has offered ‘Aghdam-Khankendi [(Stepanakert)]’ and other alternative routes," the statement said, thus openly admitting that the Azerbaijani authorities intend to force by starvation the people of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to agree to the opening of the road via Aghdam town.

"The fact that the French [Foreign] Minister, while believing the false propaganda of Armenia, in its statement referred to the misinformation about firing at the European Union Mission in Armenia, despite that it was declared false by the Mission, once again proves that France is not interested in establishing peace and stability in the region,” the Azerbaijan MFA noted.

It added that the official information by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan stated that "the movement route of the representatives of the European Union is presented to the Azerbaijani side in advance. Based on the presented route, the Azerbaijani side especially monitored that the trip of the international observers to the designated destination on the specified day happens without any incidents. The area where the mission was dispatched was not in the region of Armenia where the alleged incident took place, but in the different direction of the conditional border."

Thus, Azerbaijan assumes that the members of the EU monitoring mission in Armenia had no idea where they were during Tuesday’s incident.