Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned the charge d'affaires from the French Embassy in Baku over a resolution that was passed in the French Parliament a day earlier.
"A strong objection" was expressed to Julien Le Lan regarding the "false and slanderous resolution against Azerbaijan" adopted in the lower house of the French Parliament on Nov. 30, the ministry said in a statement.
A total of 256 French lawmakers unanimously voted on Wednesday to ratify a resolution designed to counter what Paris calls "aggression" against Armenia, which has been at loggerheads with Azerbaijan for decades. The resolution calls for Azerbaijan to "end its attacks on Armenia" and stipulates that "peace must be facilitated in the South Caucasus".
Baku on Thursday condemned the resolution in the strongest terms, saying it was "another provocation by France against Azerbaijan, similar to the recent solution adopted in the Senate."
"This resolution is only undermining the normalization process between Baku and Yerevan," the Foreign Ministry said, stressing that it was "contrary to the norms and principles of international law" and "once again clearly demonstrates France's biased political position, and its inability to act as an impartial and fair mediator."
Azerbaijan considers the French decision an "attempt to batter efforts to facilitate peace and stability in the region," Le Lan was told on Thursday.
The French diplomat assured the parliamentary decision did not reflect the "official position" of the French government, and that he would convey Azerbaijan’s attitude to the relevant authorities, the Azerbaijani ministry said.
The resolution, which bears no legal binding, demands "Azerbaijani forces and allies to withdraw" from land it claims belongs to Armenia.
It also calls on the French government to impose individual economic sanctions on Baku "if the occupation and attacks continue" on said territories.
The French Senate also passed a similar resolution earlier in November, proposing sanctions and condemning Azerbaijan for its "attack on Armenian sovereign territory" in September, and reaffirming France’s earlier recognition of Karabakh, despite it being internationally recognized as being a part of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan rejected the resolutions in both French chambers and Baku accused Paris of "biased intentions," criticizing it for not working to resolve the conflict instead.
The conflict between the South Caucasus neighbors is linked to decades-old hostilities over the control of the Karabakh region, which was illegally occupied by Armenia for three decades until 2020.
Baku and Yerevan fought two wars over the disputed territory in the 1990s and again in the autumn of 2020 when six weeks of particularly intense clashes saw over 6,500 lives lost before a Russian-brokered truce ended the hostilities.
Under the 2020 deal, Armenia ceded swathes of territory it had occupied for decades and Russia stationed peacekeepers to oversee the fragile cease-fire. However, there have been frequent exchanges of fire at the Caucasus neighbors' border since then.
Just this week, the sides traded accusations of a shootout along their shared border, not even a month after the troubled region witnessed what was dubbed the worst fighting between the two countries since 2020 and resulted in the death of over 280 people from both sides.
Hours after the fatal clashes, the foreign ministers of the rival nations met in Washington for U.S.-mediated peace talks and agreed to continue engaging in direct dialogue and diplomacy. A week prior, Baku, Yerevan and Moscow had adopted a tripartite declaration in Sochi that stipulated neither side would use force, agreeing to stick to earlier agreements that sought to end their conflict.
However, last Friday, the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev called off a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Nikol Pashinian that was set to take place on Dec. 7 in Brussels after the Armenian leader demanded that French President Emmanual Macron mediate the discussion.
Baku has long accused France of backing Armenia in their conflict over Karabakh as well as having an "anti-Azerbaijan position" and strongly opposes Paris acting as a go-between to ensure the normalization of ties and installment of a peace treaty.