Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov
Dec 26,
2023. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said on Tuesday, December 26, that two French diplomats had been ordered to leave over actions "incompatible with their diplomatic status."
Without providing further details, it said the two had been declared personae non gratae and ordered to leave the country within 48 hours.
The ministry said in a statement it had summoned French ambassador Anne
Boillon to express a "strong protest over the actions of two employees of
the French Embassy."
The move came amid tense relations between the countries as Baku has
accused France of being biased towards Armenia during European-mediated peace
talks with its arch-foe. In November, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
accused France of inciting conflicts in the Caucasus by arming Armenia.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought two wars over the disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh region. Baku reclaimed the enclave in September after a
lightning offensive against Armenian separatists who had controlled it for
three decades.
Armenia and Azerbaijan had said a comprehensive peace agreement could be
signed by the end of the year, but internationally mediated negotiations
between the ex-Soviet republics have made little progress.
Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have met on several occasions for talks under the mediation of the European Union.
But in October, Aliyev refused to attend negotiations with Pashinyan in Spain, over what he said was France's "biased position."
French President Emmanuel Macron
and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been set to mediate the talks along with
European Council President Charles Michel.
Home to a large Armenian diaspora, France has been routinely accused by
Azerbaijan of pro-Armenian bias over the Caucasus countries' territorial
conflict.
AFP