The photo was taken on December 26, in Saint Petersburg. Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, stands next to Vladimir Putin. As part of the traditional end-of-year meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Russian president hosted the leaders of nine of the 15 former Soviet republics. Two days earlier, Putin had sent a letter to Aliyev for his 61st birthday, in which he congratulated him "on [his] considerable successes," as well as urged him "to continue and strengthen the close cooperation" between their respective countries.
On the same day, the French ambassador to Azerbaijan, Anne Boillon, was summoned. The Azerbaijani diplomatic service informed her of the expulsion of two French embassy employees, due to their "activities incompatible with their status." The two French diplomats had 48 hours to leave the country.
The phrase, which is traditional in former Soviet bloc countries, gave rise to a hostile media campaign. By December 22, the pro-Aliyev Azerbainjii press was already reporting the discovery of a "network of French intelligence agents operating within the French embassy" by Azerbaijan's intelligence services. This theory was confirmed a few days later by Tahir Rzayev, a ruling YAP party MP, who considered it "obvious" that France had "established an espionage network in Armenia designed to carry out a propaganda campaign against Azerbaijan."
President Aliyev's representative in charge of normalizing relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Elchin Amirbayov, did not wish to support what he has considered "a media interpretation." He said the expulsion of the French diplomats was explained by "France's biased position towards Azerbaijan, due to its confrontation with Armenia."
On Wednesday, the French Foreign Ministry reacted by deciding to also expel two of Azerbaijan's diplomats, "as a measure of reciprocity." In a statement, the ministry "categorically refutes the allegations presented by Azerbaijan to justify its decision concerning the French diplomats." In recent months, Baku has regularly accused France of "playing a very destructive role" between Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the aim of "caus[ing] detrimental effect to the prospects of advancing the peace process" between the two countries, according to Amirbayov. "Therefore, at the moment, we can say that there is no trust in France as a 'mediator' or 'facilitator.' This decision can put us in an extremely dangerous position. We can interpret it as follows: by arming Armenia, France is inciting it to launch a new attack on our country," he asserts.
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