Two major rivals to President Emmanuel Macron in France's presidential elections have paid high-profile visits to Armenia in recent days.

Eric Zemmour, a far-right commentator known for his anti-Islam and anti-immigration rants, visited Armenia earlier this month shortly after announcing his candidacy for the April 2022 elections, describing Armenia to be a country of "martyrs” in peril.

This week, he was followed by Valerie Pecresse, the candidate of the right-wing Republicans (LR), who is viewed as the biggest threat to Macron in the elections by some observers and who has risen in polls since her nomination. Pecresse has also visited Nagorno-Karabakh, prompting strong condemnation from Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry. 

Support for Armenia, the first state in the world to establish Christianity as its official religion in the fourth century, has become a symbol of adherence to conservative ideals in an election campaign so far dominated by the right.

Armenia, according to Zemmour, is a "Christian country amid an Islamic Ocean." Meanwhile, an assistant told Agence France-Presse that Pecresse's visit was intended at "offering solidarity to Christians soon before Christmas" (AFP).

"We must organise all of Europe around this war; it is not a conflict in the Caucasus; it is a conflict that concerns Europe," far-right Pecresse told reporters in Yerevan. "When Christians of the east are attacked, it is the roots of European civilisation that are under attack."

On the left, Socialist candidate Annie Hidalgo has not ruled out a trip to Armenia, and in December she inaugurated a "Esplanade of Armenia," a pedestrian promenade in Paris, where she spoke of "Paris' unwavering support of the Armenian people," without mentioning religion.

Macron has been outspoken in his support for Armenia, writing earlier this month after meeting with both Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels: "The Armenians will never be forgotten by us. We will continue to look for long-term peace options."

Members of France's 500,000-strong Armenian diaspora have mixed sentiments about the renewed interest in their homeland, appreciative for the assistance but wary of political exploitation.

"We don't want the Armenian cause to be engulfed in a civil war that serves just internal politics," said Jules Boyadjian, president of the French organisation Committee for the Defence of the Armenian Cause.

Pecresse and Zemmour are well-known in France for anti-migrant legislation targeting the country's Muslim community.

Pecresse had expressed alarm about the emergence of "Islamism" in France earlier in December.

“I am determined to stop the rise of Islamism,” she said, according to The Associated Press (AP). “In France, women are free, and the laws of the Republic are respected,” she said, apparently forgetting about France's bid to restrict Muslim women from wearing face veil as part of a controversial so-called anti-separatism law, which is seen by rights organisations as an infringement on the rights and freedoms of the country's minority.

Zemmour, on the other side, has made statements about national identity, including anti-Muslim, anti-Islam, anti-migrant, anti-Black, and anti-minority sentiments.

He was fined 3,000 euros ($3,500) in September 2019 for a hostile outburst against Muslims during a broadcast appearance.