French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday recalled France’s “resolute support” for Armenia on the occasion of the 108th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian genocide. “A day of meditation to defend the memory of the victims. The symbol of the rebirth of the Armenian people,” he said on Twitter. “A testimony, too, of France’s resolute and lasting support for Armenia”, he added, while this country is currently experiencing strong tensions with its Azerbaijani neighbor.
Baku announced on Sunday that it had installed a first checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, the only road linking Armenia to the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh. The two former Soviet republics have already fought for control of this mountainous region in two wars, one in the 1990s and the other in 2020. Russia said on Monday it was “concerned” after the installation of this first checkpoint, an “unacceptable” measure for Moscow, which sees its regional influence eroding.
This construction “harms the negotiation process”, regretted Paris for its part, which calls for “the restoration of the free movement of goods, people and goods” along the corridor and a “continuous supply of the population in gas and electricity”.
Armenia calls the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by troops of the Ottoman Empire during World War I a genocide. More than twenty countries and many historians recognize the Armenian Genocide. Turkey recognizes massacres, but for its part rejects the term genocide.
