French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Wednesday accused Russia of wanting to “punish Armenia ” for its “aspiration for peace and respect for its sovereignty, principles that (Moscow) flouts in Ukraine, Le Figaro reports. ”Russia “wants to punish Armenia, because it chose the path of the fight against impunity, by joining the International Criminal Court” and “quite simply, because it chose democracy and the State of right ,” added the head of government, who was speaking at the annual dinner of the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations in France (CCAF).
Gabriel Attal also castigated “the complacent attitude of Russia which did not condemn the use of force” by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, where he lived until the end of last year a majority Armenian population, and “in reality, endorsed” it . The “so-called “ peacekeeping” Russian forces have allowed the humanitarian crisis to take hold ,” he added.
Gabriel Attal demanded that Azerbaijan “withdraw its forces from occupied positions” in Armenia, estimating that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev “himself recognized that Azerbaijani forces had advanced to several points of Armenian territory” . “The challenge today is to help Armenia defend its independence, its democracy, its territory, in a word: its sovereignty” and to “preserve the territorial integrity of Armenia ,” he hammered.
