DM Monitoring
Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said France and the United States are suffering from “wounded pride” against the background of Moscow’s role in the Nagorno-Karabakh cease-fire deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Paris’ request to Moscow to clarify the “ambiguity” regarding the cease-fire agreement and Turkey’s role in this agreement reveals the French dissatisfaction with its own marginalization. In this renewed crisis, France appeared to be a toothless tiger, playing no decisive role in the region.
It only has an extremely limited diplomatic range to apply any pressure. Neither the European Union nor Paris was able to stop the battles between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis. French President Emmanuel Macron, in his capacity as co-chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, tried to exploit the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis and take the lead to assert himself as a true leader of all Europe.
It cannot be denied that the tripartite agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia in Karabakh was a shock to the West in general, especially Paris. Everyone was confident that Russia and Turkey would face off in the South Caucasus, but, instead, the opposite happened. Moscow and Ankara prevented the participation of Western parties that are outsiders to the region. Tense statements continued between Russia and the U.S., and verbal escalations also carried on between Macron and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on multiple aspects.
In addition, no one should forget the difficult situation inside France, especially regarding the yellow vest movement, recent protests against a new media law and Macron’s statements related to Islam.
The second Karabakh war revealed, among many other things, the importance of cooperation and coordination between Turkey and Russia, which we had already seen in Syria. Many attempts have been made to repeat it in Libya.
