The illegal “charter” signed between the Alfortville city of France’s Île-de-France region and the Armenian-occupied Lachin city of Azerbaijan has been annulled, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told APA.
The “charter” was annulled thanks to the joint work of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry and the Azerbaijani Embassy in Paris with France’s relevant bodies, noted Hajiyev.
“Since 2013, Armenian lobbyists functioning in France, under the pretext of “twin cities”, has been trying to sign illegal documents between the occupied Azerbaijani cities and France’s cities and settlements and to promote the illegal regime in Nagorno-Karabakh by such steps,” he said.
The spokesman recalled that on 30 June 2017, the city council of France's Alfortville decided to sign an illegal “charter”.
“The prefect of the Val-dé-Marne department, to which the city of Alfortville belongs, sent an appeal (recours gracieux) to the city council for a voluntary abolition of the decision dated 30 July 2017, but received no answer. In this regard, the prefect of the Val-dé-Marne department filed an appeal to court for the abolition of the illegal “charter”,” he said.
Nevertheless, based on the decision of the city council, the mayor of Alfortville signed the unlawful “charter” on 20 November 2017, Hajiyev stressed.
“On 8 March 2018, the court held the first hearing and a public prosecutor demanded that the “charter” be abolished due to the violation of paragraph L1115-1 of the French General Code on Local Self-Government (about the agreements signed by the aforementioned bodies being in line with France’s international obligations). As a result, on 12 April 2018, the city council of Alfortville was forced to revoke its decision (dated 30 June 2017) on signing an unlawful “charter” ("Charte d'amitié entreAlfortville et Berdzor") without waiting for a court decision with 41 votes for and 1 abstention,” he said.
Hajiyev continued: “Mayor of Alfortville Michel Gershenovitz said, ‘in order to prevent prosecution, on April 12 I asked the city council to revoke its decision. Otherwise, this verdict would a judicial act that could damage "artsakh diplomacy”.”
Baku welcomes the decision of the prefect of the Val-dé-Marne department to appeal to court for the annulment of the illegal “charter” and expects France’s central executive authorities and departments to take similar steps, Hajiyev emphasized.
In addition, Baku urges the French Foreign Ministry and other relevant bodies of the country to take strict measures to prevent the illegal activities of French local authorities in connection with the occupied Azerbaijani territories, as well as the organization of illegal visits to these lands, the spokesman added.
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