Translation Introduction:

Since the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted about two years ago, Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey, has succeeded in acquiring a large area of ​​the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and relations are deteriorating continuously between Azerbaijan and France due to the clear bias shown by the latter to Armenia over the past years.

However, the roots of the alliance between France and Armenia date back to a little before the war, as the journalist "Georgi Lammadze" wrote on the "Eurasia Net" website in 2018, when he reported the details of the Francophone summit held in the Armenian capital, "Yerevan", and its news spread because of a joint dance he performed. French President Macron with Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan.

Pashinyan lured world leaders to the dance floor, including French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, during a party on Oct. 11, 2018 in Yerevan.

Pashinyan took selfies with the leaders who came to Yerevan to celebrate all that is French at the summit of the International Organization of Francophones, an organization of 84 French-speaking and loving countries.

That rally was the largest international event held in Armenia after the peaceful uprising that brought Pashinyan to power in the spring of 2018.

Perhaps Armenia's connection to the French world is not clear, and some even questioned the decision to hold the summit in "Yerevan" at the time, but in fact Armenia has deep cultural links with the Francophone world.

France is home to the third largest Armenian diaspora.

These Armenians played a very important role in the French resistance to the Nazis.

"Thousands of Armenians have worked to strengthen France and defend our people. In return, France shares the same love with Armenia," Macron said in his speech at the opening of the summit.

He also pointed out that the Armenians presented France with many of its most famous artists and representatives, including the legendary singer "Charles Aznavour", who was mentioned at the ceremony, where "Pashinyan" said praising him that "a great personality, he was an ambassador of the French language, and I think that Aznavour would have liked if he was We are here today."

However, there were those who criticized the summit and said that the Francophone Organization had relaxed its membership rules too much, by including non-French-speaking countries.

A Canadian researcher told City News, a news program in Canada, that this would somehow discredit the French language.

The Georgian journalist "Lomsadze" concluded his report with tacit reservations expressed by some about Armenia's hosting of the Francophone summit, but the accelerating events after that quickly strengthened Franco-Armenian relations, and sent French-Azerbaijani relations to a new bottom in recent days, including the children themselves, who were pushed by the Azerbaijani media to On television, the satire of "Macron" and his dance with the Armenian prime minister, as reported by the Azerbaijani journalist "Ulkar Natiq-Kezi" in his short article, which we quote with translation in the following lines.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (Reuters)

Translation text:

Azerbaijani children are attracted by Baku's ongoing campaign against French President Macron these days, some of whom have been recruited to perform a song on state television insulting and accusing him of being dishonest and pro-Armenian.

The three-minute song appeared on Azerbaijani TV's Facebook page on October 18, as the presenter of one of the programmes, Aziz Aliyev, stood singing alongside a group of children.

Aliyev sings: “He is a supporter of the Armenians

What would you like to say to that person?

He made false promises to us

Pashinyan danced

He humiliated himself by doing so

Tell me... who is this person?"

The children answer, saying his name interrupted: "E-ma-no-yl!".

The French president has become like a giant boxing bag that everyone is kicking in Azerbaijan, after his statements he made on October 12 during a television interview in which he accused Azerbaijan of waging a “terrible war” in 2020 to regain the lands it lost in the confrontation with the Armenians in the war The first that broke out between the two parties in the nineties.

Macron also said that it was Azerbaijan that initiated the attacks that ignited the escalation and fighting between the two sides last September;

Baku asserts that its attack was a response to the Armenian "provocations".

Macron's comments drew a wave of criticism. While France has always been suspect in Azerbaijan's eyes, being seen as favoring Armenia, Macron at the time of the interview maintained a reasonably friendly relationship with Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan.

Macron met his Azerbaijani counterpart in Prague on October 6, along with European Union President Charles Michel and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Aliyev spoke approvingly of Macron's participation in the meeting.

But following the TV interview, Aliyev said that Macron's invitation came only out of tact, given that France had no place in the mediation process after marginalizing the Minsk Group, the diplomatic body that brokered the talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan before 2020, France is one of its three presidents.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (Anatolia)

Aliyev explained at a subsequent meeting of the former Soviet Union summit in Kazakhstan that “Azerbaijan nevertheless showed goodwill and allowed the French president to participate in that meeting. But despite the goodwill shown by Azerbaijan, Macron made insulting, unacceptable, false and provocative statements after Only one week from the Prague meeting.

Aliyev complained about "the preparation of another anti-Azerbaijan resolution" in the French Senate, blaming Macron personally for what he described as an anti-Azerbaijan shift in Paris.

Aliyev added, “I had the opportunity to communicate closely with Presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy as well as François Hollande, and our relationship was very balanced and friendly. We have always considered the movements of the former French presidents balanced, despite the role of the Armenian diaspora in France of course. However, the leadership The present French has effectively written off all of that."

For its part, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded to Macron's interview, saying in a statement that "the views expressed by the French president against Azerbaijan seriously question the impartiality and integrity of his mediation efforts."

The Azerbaijani parliamentarian, "Siyavush Norozov" submitted a proposal to sever diplomatic relations with France, but the involvement of children in the dispute took it to another level.

In the mentioned recording, Aliyev sings in fluent French, saying:

 In the heart of Paris

Someone is talking nonsense

As if he was drunk...

tell me;

Who is that person?"

Then the children respond again: "Emmanuel!"

Reactions to the video varied, with one suggesting that it "should be translated into French", while another commented that "it is not right for children to use political tools, and how sad it is for state television to do such a thing."

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan appointed its new ambassador to France, Leyla Abdullahiyeva, who served as press secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The new ambassador posted a tweet on Twitter saying: "I will do my best to be worthy of this high trust and contribute to the development of Azerbaijani-French relations between the two countries," but it is certain that her task will never be easy in this atmosphere.

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This article is translated from Eurasianet and does not necessarily represent the Medan website.

Translation: Karim Muhammad.