Next week, the French Senate will debate on a draft resolution calling for the recognition of the independence of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Republic, Armenpress reports.

As per this draft resolution, the Senate condemns Azerbaijan’s military aggression carried out with the assistance of the Turkish authorities and foreign mercenaries, and calls on the Azerbaijani armed forces and their supporters to immediately withdraw from that territory occupied since September 27 as a result of the military operations conducted in the Nagorno-Karabakh region..

In addition, according to this draft resolution, the French Senate calls on the French government to provide considerable humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, demanding the opening of humanitarian corridors and the use of all available avenues; to support, within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, the immediate implementation of the protection of the population through the deployment of international intervention forces under its auspices, in accordance with the recommendations of the 2007 peace plan; to demand an international investigation into the war crimes committed in Nagorno-Karabakh; to do everything in its power to ensure the restoration of the borders that were decided on in 1994; and to recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and to make that recognition an instrument of negotiation for establishing a lasting peace.

On November 9, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement on a complete cessation of hostilities— which Azerbaijan had launched on September 27—in and around Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Accordingly, Russian peacekeepers will be deployed in the region to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities. But this statement also stipulates the handover of part of Artsakh lands to Azerbaijan.