The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported that on November 18, during the Ministerial meeting within the framework of the ongoing Summit of the International Organization of the Francophonie in Djerba, Tunisia, Ararat Mirzoyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, made a provocative statement full of distortions regarding the alleged anti-Azerbaijan positions by members of the Organization.

"During the preparations for the Djerba Summit, with the direct support of France, one-sided, biased, and distorted provocative provisions against Azerbaijan was included in the initial texts of the final documents of the Summit, namely the Djerba Declaration, and the draft resolution dedicated to crises in the Francophone area, and were presented to the member states for discussion," the report added.

"However, as a result of the intervention of several member states during the discussion of the draft documents, the said provisions against our country were removed from the texts, and any wording directly targeting Azerbaijan was prevented in the drafts. Nevertheless, there are still certain elements in the document's final draft that do not belong to the Organization’s mandate and provide a possibility of incitement of the political propaganda tools of Armenia," it stated.

"It should be noted that taking such steps, which are unprecedented in international multilateral platforms, and the gross violation of procedural rules have once again demonstrated that the International Organization of the Francophonie is a political tool of France to put pressure on other countries, and this, undoubtedly will bring serious damage to its reputation as an institution with a cultural profile," the Ministry emphasized.

"It is completely unacceptable to misuse an institution, which is managed under the influence of France and the main purpose of which is to promote the French language and culture worldwide, where Azerbaijan is not a member or an observer, for politically biased purposes and discussion of issues that are not related to its mandate. As a result of such disruptive activity of France, we consider the documents adopted at the Summit of the Francophone member states to be politically biased and irrelevant," the report added.

"Azerbaijani side expresses its gratitude to all the states that have demonstrated a position based on the norms and principles of international law in the document discussion process of the Summit," the Ministry concluded.

As previously reported by Caucasus Watch, within the framework of the 43rd Session of La Francophonie Ministerial Conference, Ararat Mirzoyan stated, "Today, we have gathered amid the crisis of multilateralism accompanied by an increasingly growing number of conflicts. We note that the collective security mechanisms based on respect for the UN Charter principles, particularly the sovereign equality and non-use of force against the territorial integrity of any state, can no longer guarantee the security of states facing the aggressive policy of other states. One of the first victims of this has become Armenia. Azerbaijan has violated its territorial integrity and sovereignty, which has undertaken aggressions since May 2021. The recent aggression was unleashed on September 13-14, 2022, with the consequences known to all of us: the occupation of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, hundreds of victims and wounded, thousands of displaced people, and the extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure."