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Is France Raising Tensions In the South Caucasus With Its Weapons Delivery To Armenia?
In a move that Azerbaijan says will further destabilise South Caucasus, a batch of French armored vehicles has arrived in Armenia. The delivery of the Bastion offensive vehicles was made via Georgia, and comes as both Baku and Yerevan try to forge a peace deal after decades of tensions over the Karabakh region. Azerbaijan blasted France's weapons shipment, saying it is putting normalisation efforts between the two former Soviet states at risk.
Earlier this year, Azerbaijan launched a lightning counter-terrorism operation that forced the last remaining Armenian separatists in Karabakh to surrender. The victory finally restored Azerbaijan's full control over the breakaway region which Armenian forces had occupied for decades. France, which signed an arms agreement with Yerevan back in October, has been stepping up its political and military cooperation with the country. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has met French President Emmanuel Macron several times over the past year, has welcomed closer ties with the West. On Tuesday, Pashinyan announced that he would be skipping next week's security summit with Russia and other former Soviet states.
Guest:
Aykhan Hajizada
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan
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