French leader to mediate Karabakh settlement at Yerevan, Baku visit?April 4, 2014 - 17:03 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - French President Francois Hollande’s official visit to Azerbaijan, scheduled for next month, is of great political importance, French envoy said, according to APA. As Pascal Meunier reminded at a news conference in Baku, visits to Armenia and Georgia are also on the French President's agenda. He recalled that President Hollande would visit Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. “One of main goals of President Hollande’s visit is to support a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The resolution of the Karabakh issue will open up great opportunities for the conflicting parties. The second aim is to show that as a sovereign entity, the region that can determine its future itself. We support peace and friendship among the regional countries,” the French ambassador to Azerbaijan concluded. As was reported earlier, initiation of the Genocide denial criminalization bill will be officially announced during Hollande's visit to Armenia. On January 23, 2012 the French Senate passed the bill making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide. The bill envisaged a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire. However, the French Constitutional Council ruled the bill as anti-constitutional. In a statement the Council said the document represented an “unconstitutional breach of the practice of freedom of expression and communication Later, President Hollande pledged to redraft the law criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in France, stressing the need to ensure the legal framework to avoid censorship by the Constitutional Council. The Armenian Genocide The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million. Top stories The EU does not intend to conduct military exercises with Armenia, Lead Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano says. Hikmet Hajiyev has said that there is no place for USAID operation in Azerbaijan any longer. A telephone conversation between Putin and Pashinyan before the CSTO summit is not planned, Peskov says. London’s Armenian community has been left feeling “under attack” after the city’s Genocide monument was vandalised. Partner news | Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. Armenia to sing in 2nd semi-final of Eurovision The organizers of Eurovision 2024 have revealed the running order of the countries in the two semi-finals. Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of arming Karabakh after 2020 Azerbaijan has accused Armenia of “illegally transported ammunition” to Nagorno-Karabakh after the November 9 statement. |