“Will France provide military equipment to Armenia? It partly depends on the needs of Armenia and the request of the Armenian authorities. Still, in my opinion, France is not in the mood to provide massive military aid to Armenia today,” French-Armenian public figure Hilda Choboyan said in an interview with Aravot referring to the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France. Remember that French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna announced: “France has agreed to sign a contract with Armenia in the future, enabling it to provide military equipment to Armenia so that Armenia can ensure its defense.” According to Hilda Choboyan, this step of France is the result of public pressure; in the context of the recent attack of Azerbaijan in Artsakh, the public opinion in France put pressure on the government that you only talk, there is no action. “Of course, France will provide support in the political and humanitarian sphere, but the current situation of Armenia and Artsakh requires very powerful levers. There is a real danger of an attack on Armenia. Therefore, France should not be able to counter Azerbaijan’s new attack with these small steps,” she said.
Hilda Choboyan draws attention to the final statement of the Granada meeting, calling on both sides, Armenia and Azerbaijan, to release the prisoners of war. “Everyone knows that there are no prisoners of war in Armenia. This policy of establishing equality between the two sides is continuing. The sentiments of the two houses of the French parliament are as follows: they say why do we provide huge aid to Ukraine but not to Armenia? However, the attitude of the French government was changing very slowly, and the last of these changes was Catherine Colonna’s statement that France was ready to provide military support to Armenia. But should that statement of France be implemented immediately with very decisive steps, or should we wait for weeks and months for France to examine and discuss it? In my opinion, this process is not encouraging,” she added.
According to Hilda Choboyan, a lot depends on Armenia in the current situation and how far Armenia will use possible and impossible levers to speed up this process. “But until today, the steps taken by France do not inspire hope that France will provide ample assistance to Armenia,” she added.
Rosa HOVHANNISYAN
