"Nagorno-Karabakh occıpation impedes solution to Turkish-Armenian controversy"

Extending Azerbaijan's support to Turkey one more time in the wake of the most recent Armenian genocide allegations, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov has stated that his country is "badly disappointed" by the French Parliament's decision, and he reaffirmed that Turkey and Azerbaijan, as with many other issues, were on the same page regarding the Armenian controversy. Speaking to Today's Zaman during a working visit to Ankara, Azimov raised concerns similar to those of Turkish officials regarding the French vote. He found the vote "strange" given the fact that France acted as co-chairs to the Minsk Group, a multipartite platform that was organized to settle the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azimov expressed disapproval on the French lower house vote to criminalize denial of the "Armenian genocide," saying that it is, however, possible to understand why the bill came through given the "political labyrinth of Paris," a reference to the pre-election political calculations of rivaling parties. The experienced deputy minister stressed that the French vote was "a shady and tricky intrigue" that would widely damage and compromise the international image of France and deal massive damage due to the "double standards" reflected in the bill. Regarding the latest French lower house vote on penalizing denial of the "Armenian genocide," Azimov believes that the bill was based on "a false history" which Armenians were promoting with "undesirable vigorousness." Azimov noted, "Putting my feet in the shoes of my colleagues in Ankara, I cannot trust a country [Armenia] which creates genocide initiatives on the one hand and speaks about a desire to cooperate on the other, not recognizing the territorial integrity of Turkey and compromising the borders of the country," he noted.