The France-Artsakh friendship group has issued a statement titled “Nagorno-Karabakh: the great absentee of the Washington Declaration”, expressing concern over key omissions in the August 8 agreement signed by Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington, D.C.
The group welcomed Armenia's willingness to achieve peace but warned that the declaration ignores critical issues, including the right of return for Armenians displaced during Azerbaijan's 2023 ethnic cleansing campaign, the release of Armenian prisoners still held in Baku, and the protection of Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh — currently under threat of destruction or appropriation.
The statement argues that history has repeatedly disproven the illusion that appeasing aggressors leads to lasting peace.
It also raises alarm over the joint appeal by the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers to the OSCE to terminate the Minsk Group and related mechanisms. While acknowledging the group's recent inactivity, the initiative warned that its formal dissolution could remove the last avenue for a multilateral and legitimate international approach to unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh issues.
The statement criticizes the inclusion of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity in the declaration—enabling unobstructed transit between mainland Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan through Armenian territory. The group argues this will strengthen Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s regional positions, further tipping the power imbalance against Armenia.
“Our old European continent teaches us that pursuing peace at any cost is not the best guarantee for lasting peace,” said François Pupponi, President of the France-Artsakh friendship group. “History has shown that satisfying an aggressor’s appetite only invites further danger. If we accept this truth in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, we must equally apply it to Nagorno-Karabakh—the great absentee from this peace declaration.”
On August 8, a joint declaration was signed at the White House following a trilateral meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov pre-signed the “Agreement on Peace and Establishment of Interstate Relations” in the presence of the leaders.
