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Opposition politician Eduard Sharmazanov, a senior member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), claims the French envoy’s latest comments about “Western Azerbaijan” was a response to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s remarks.

French Ambassador to Armenia Olivier Decottignies posted a map of Iran's West Azerbaijan Province on X, writing, “The one and only.” It comes amid Azerbaijan’s propaganda efforts to promote the false concept of “Western Azerbaijan”.

“The French ambassador’s post was, first of all, a slap in the face for Pashinyan,” Sharmazanov wrote on Facebook on Monday.

He underscored that the French diplomat’s remark about the Iranian province being the “only Western Azerbaijan” sparked a great debate, with many calling it a response to Azerbaijan.

“But it’s not so. Given Nikol Pashinyan's absurd remarks in an interview on 22 November in which he compared Western Armenia to “Western Azerbaijan”, we can assume that the addressee of his statement is Pashinyan himself,” the politician stated.

“France responded to Pashinian's delusional comments through its ambassador. Incidentally, exactly 4 years ago the French Parliament recognized the independence of Artsakh. Pashinyan welcomed this decision, but later surrendered Artsakh to Azerbaijan.

“And now he is renouncing Western Armenia after rejecting Armenia's Declaration of Independence,” Sharmazanov added.