ISTANBUL

Azerbaijan assailed France on Tuesday for signing a contract to sell CAESAR self-propelled howitzers to Armenia.

“The fact that France, despite the warnings of the Azerbaijani side, has supplied Armenia with lethal and assault artillery installations and other types of weapons is further evidence of France's provocative activities in the South Caucasus region,” said the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry in a statement.

“Although the French Ministry of Defense claimed in an October statement last year that the military equipment supplied to Armenia was of a defensive nature, equipping Armenia with lethal weapons under the current military deal is another manifestation of the hypocrisy of the French leadership,” the statement said.

“The Macron regime, pursuing a policy of militarization and geopolitical intrigue in the South Caucasus region, is an obstacle to normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and ensuring lasting peace in the region.

“The current French leadership, which is excluded from normalization and regional processes due to such a destructive and biased policy, cannot forgive this to Azerbaijan and therefore continues its disruptive policy,” the statement added.

Underlining that Armenia is a country that engaged in “military aggression and occupation against Azerbaijan,” the statement further said that “the rearmament of Armenia, which has experience of bloody military aggression, by France, which is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and the Armenian leadership’s support for the revanchist policy is a path to a new war, equal to political irresponsibility.”

Claiming that France, as a colonial power, has “historically had a rich hideous experience of creating hotbeds of war and conflict in various parts of the world,” the statement said that events in New Caledonia and other coastal colonies, including exploitation of locals, resource plundering, demographic changes from racist policies and forceful protest suppression, reflect the essence of the Macron regime.

“Instead of solving such deep-rooted problems, which are a relic of the shameful colonial legacy, and putting an end to neocolonialism, France is conducting a dirty propaganda and disinformation campaign against Azerbaijan,” the statement said.

“We declare that the leadership of Armenia, pursuing a revanchist policy, and the Macron dictatorship will bear full responsibility for the aggravation of the situation in the South Caucasus and the emergence of a new hotbed of war,” it added.