BAKU. Sept 12 (Interfax) - The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has summoned the French charge d'affaires a.i. to be served with a note of protest over a visit of French parliamentarians to Nagorno-Karabakh.
"We strongly condemn the illegal visit of French parliamentarians to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.
"In this regard, the Charge d'affaires a.i. of France to Azerbaijan has been invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, where a note of protest addressed to the French side was handed him," the ministry said.
The note says that "such illegal trips seriously undermine the efforts of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, including France, aimed at resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through negotiations, and also damages the image of France as an intermediary in this process."
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry urged the French government "to take decisive measures to stop the illegal trips of the parliamentarians from this country, aimed at consolidating the status quo based on the results of occupation of the Azerbaijani territories, and thereby to confirm the consistency of its impartial approach as a mediator in the settlement, guided by the interests of the proper fulfillment of its international obligations."
The visit was arranged by "biased deputies, those influenced by the Armenian lobby of France, like Guy Teissier, whose name, due to his previous illegal visits, is already on the list of people whose entry to Azerbaijan is undesirable," the ministry said.
Azerbaijan will also blacklist the other French parliamentarians involved in the "illegal" visit, i.e., Valerie Boyer, Jean-Pierre Cubertafon, Mohamad Laqhila, Daniele Cazarian, Guillaume Kasbarian, and senator Pierre Ouzoulias.