ArmInfo. From the very beginning of the aggravation of the situation in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, France took an active part, together with other co- chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, in efforts to achieve a ceasefire Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Secretary of State to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France stated this on November 28 during a briefing in Yerevan.
He recalled that the co-chair countries made three unsuccessful attempts to establish a ceasefire between the parties, then, on November 9, a trilateral agreement was signed by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. "The document signed on November 9, consisting of 9 points, does not contain a number of provisions, for example, the issue of ensuring security and long-term peace, the status of Nagorno- Karabakh, the withdrawal of Syrian mercenaries from the Middle East. In this regard, we are convinced that the discussion of these issues should be continued in within the OSCE Minsk Group. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to continue negotiations within the OSCE Minsk Group," Lemoyne said, recalling that French President Emmanuel Macron was one of the first calling things by their proper names in connection with the situation in the Karabakh conflict zone, informing about the transfer of mercenaries by Turkey to the conflict zone to participate in the battles. According to the French diplomat, Paris expects Ankara to withdraw these mercenaries from the conflict zone, and also hopes that European partners will support the introduction of sanctions against Turkey.
When asked if he had the impression that Russia bypassed its OSCE Minsk Group partners and reached an agreement with Turkey, the French Foreign Minister reiterated that the statement did not contain certain points and that the participation of all OSCE MG co-chairs in the continuation of negotiations was necessary.
To note, after Azerbaijan's large-scale military aggression against Artsakh, a number of media outlets wrote about hundreds of Syrian militants associated with Turkey deployed to Karabakh and about the readiness to send "hundreds more" of militias to the Karabakh conflict zone.
Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad said that fighters from Syria are being deployed to Karabakh, and Turkey is using terrorists from Syria and other countries in Nagorno-Karabakh. In turn, the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, Sergey Naryshkin, also reported that, according to the information available to the Service, mercenaries from international terrorist organizations fighting in the Middle East are actively transferring into the conflict zone, and we are talking about hundreds and even thousands of radicals.
French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke about the transfer of 300 Syrian militants across Turkey to Baku in early October. The leaders of Azerbaijan and Turkey, despite providing numerous factual evidence of their involvement in the hostilities, denied their involvement. And the Russian Foreign Minister noted that the number of militants participating in the conflict is in the thousands.