Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated at the meeting of the Council of the Heads of States of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) that his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, is not using the correct vocabulary, saying that “the Russian Federation has played Azerbaijan’s game”.

Aliyev called Macron’s accusations against Russia that Moscow deliberately destabilized the situation in the South Caucasus, as well as Azerbaijan’s accusations that Baku occupied the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh as “offensive, deceitful, unacceptable and provocative.”

In addition, Aliyev referred to the quadrilateral meeting held in Prague on October 6, emphasizing that “although the French president participated in it, France has nothing to do with the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

“Yes, France, as co-chair of the Minsk Group, had the mandate of a mediation mission, but since the Karabakh conflict has been resolved, and there is no need for the services of the Minsk Group, especially since those services were, so to speak, “the service of the bear”, as I already said, the Minsk Group did not do anything, not a single centimeter of our territory was liberated,” Aliyev said.

According to him, Azerbaijan, “allowed the French president to participate in this meeting”.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan also released a message, stating: “With Azerbaijan’s attempts to ensure peace, stability, and development in the region, to regulate relations with Armenia based on the principles of international law, France’s unilateral position and groundless accusations against Baku force Azerbaijan to once again review France’s mediation efforts.”