I wanted to express two things with this Facebook post. First of all, I wanted to describe a reality, which was the following: from Monday to Tuesday night, at 2 o'clock at night, everyone was online, no one was sleeping, everyone was worried in Yerevan, Armenia. French ambassador to Armenia Jonathan Lacôte said in an interview with RFE/RL Armenian Service - and referring to his Facebook post, “When Yeraskh (village in Ararat Province of Armenia) can’t sleep, Yerevan stays awake too.”
“The second message was the message of solidarity. I wanted to tell the people following me that France is following the border situation. People should rest assured that the French authorities are fully informed at the highest level about what is happening on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
Yeraskh is both a symbolic and a strategic place. Strategic, as it is the closest border with Yerevan to Azerbaijan, and symbolic, as this is a place where four countries meet. There is tension there at the moment, but we must hope that in the future Yeraskh can again become the crossroads that it once was,” Lacôte said.
Referring to cooperation between Armenia and France, the French ambassador noted: “As for cooperation between Armenia and France in the defense sector, we, of course, will be ready to consider all the petitions addressed to us by the Armenian authorities. Of course, we must take into account some realities - France and Armenia are not members of the same military alliances.
In general, our role is not to prepare for the future war. Our role is to avoid a new conflict and to accompany in the political process, which will enable a final solution to the problematic issues in the region.”
He commented on why before the war, during the war, today France continues to provide diplomatic and political assistance to Armenia. “Of course, the basis of France’s steps towards Armenia is the special relations between our two countries. But it is also conditioned by some principles, to which France is very faithful. France, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is fighting for a world where conflicts are not resolved by force. France believes in a world where people can stay in their territories. And France believes in negotiated solutions to conflicts. A number of issues arise from this conflict, to which France attaches great importance: non-use of force, protection of cultural and spiritual heritage, exclusion of the use of certain types of weapons. It's the whole set of issues that explains France’s involvement in this issue,” Lacôte said.
