Members of Paris' Armenian community joined forces with sympathizers of the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by the EU. Organizing a protest on Tuesday, the protestors targeted Turkey and Azerbaijan amid escalating tension in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.
Protesting Azerbaijan's self-defense against Armenia's attacks, Armenians gathered around the Azerbaijan Embassy in Paris. Soon after, PKK sympathizers joined the group holding Armenian flags, along with the terrorist group's banners.
The groups shouted slogans targeting both President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev.
Providing broad security measures, French policemen had to warn some of the protestors who were creating disorder.
While the protest was ongoing, the banners on the Azerbaijani Embassy building, saying "Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan" and "Stop Armenian attacks" drew attention.
Various media outlets and Azerbaijani state authorities recently reported that Armenia uses YPG/PKK terrorists, brought to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region in recent months, to attack Azerbaijani civilian settlements.
According to security sources speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Armenia made an agreement with the PKK at the end of July ahead of the attacks on Azerbaijani civilian settlements. Within the scope of the agreement, around 300 YPG/PKK elements were transferred to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Accordingly, the terrorists also trained Armenian militias in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan's envoy to Turkey Khazar Ibrahim on Monday similarly told AA that Armenia brought terrorist groups, including the PKK and the so-called Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), to the Nagorno-Karabakh region and provided them with weapons.
Previously on Friday, reports stated that many YPG/PKK terrorists who received training in Iraq and Syria were transferred to Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is occupied by Armenia, to train Armenian militias against Azerbaijan and ultimately open a new front against Turkey.
The PKK has been responsible for some 40,000 deaths – including women, children and infants – in its decadeslong terror campaign, while ASALA is responsible for the murders of dozens of Turkish diplomats in targeted terrorist assassinations.
Border clashes broke out early Sunday when Armenian forces targeted Azerbaijani civilian settlements and military positions, leading to casualties.
Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan. Referencing this fact, four U.N. Security Council (UNSC) and two U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions, as well as decisions by many international organizations, demand that Armenia's occupying forces withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh and seven other occupied regions of Azerbaijan.
