Macron blames Moscow of playing Azerbaijan’s game at the expense of weakening Armenia

French President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of using the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia to destabilise the Caucasus region.

Moscow had purposefully stoked tensions in recent months in favour of Azerbaijan, Macron said in an interview with France 2 television on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

“The Russians have used this conflict which dated back several centuries and played Azerbaijan's game with Turkish complicity and came back to weaken Armenia which was once a country it was close to," Macron said.

"You see what's happening? It's an effort by Russia to destabilise. It wants to create disorder in the Caucasus to destabilise all of us,” he said.

In September, Azerbaijan escalated military tensions with Armenia, violating a truce agreement reached between the two countries in 2020, following a war over Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Armenia accused Azerbaijan for shelling Armenian positions on the border, using large-caliber weapons, artillery, missile systems, and UAVs and occupying ten square kilometers of Armenian sovereign territory, while Azerbaijan said it has taken “retaliatory” measures against Armenia’s “provocations.” 

As a result of Azerbaijani aggression, 207 Armenian soldiers have been killed, according to Armenian official figures. Azerbaijan announced 71 military casualties. 

Azerbaijan and Armenia embroiled in six weeks of fighting in autumn 2020, also known as the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. The conflict ended with a truce agreement brokered by Russia in November 2020 and Armenia handed back territories in Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan as part of the deal. Turkey sided with Baku in the conflict and provided military assistance to Azerbaijan.

Armenia is a military ally of Russia through the CSTO, an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia, consisting of six post-Soviet states. The Moscow-led organization also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.