Azerbaijan expels two French diplomats

This photograph taken at the Lachin checkpoint, on September 26, 2023, shows an Azerbaijan flag. AFP - EMMANUEL DUNAND

Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said Tuesday that two French diplomats had been ordered to leave over actions "incompatible with their diplomatic status."

The ministry said in a statement it had summoned French ambassador Anne Boillon to express a "strong protest for the actions of two employees of the French Embassy that were incompatible with their diplomatic status and which contradicted the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

"It was brought to the attention of the French Ambassador that they were declared "personae-non-gratae" (undesirable persons) by the Government of Azerbaijan," according to the statement, which was published in English at the website of Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry.

Without providing further details, it said the two had been declared personae non gratae and ordered to leave the country within 48 hours.

The move came amid tense relations between the countries as Baku has accused France of being biased towards Armenia during European-mediated peace talks with its arch-foe.

In November, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused France of inciting conflicts in the Caucasus by arming Armenia.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought two wars over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Baku reclaimed the enclave in September after a lightning offensive against Armenian separatists who had controlled it for three decades.

Armenia and Azerbaijan had said a comprehensive peace agreement could be signed by the end of the year, but internationally mediated negotiations between the ex-Soviet republics have made little progress.

Ethnic Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh to Kornidzor, in Armenia's Syunik region, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to exchange prisoners of war and work toward signing a peace treaty in what the European Union is hailing as a major step toward peace in the long-troubled region. AP - Vasily Krestyaninov

Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have met on several occasions for talks under the mediation of the European Union.

But in October, Aliyev refused to attend negotiations with Pashinyan in Spain, over what he said was France's "biased position."

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been set to mediate the talks along with European Council President Charles Michel.

Home to a large Armenian diaspora, France has been routinely accused by Azerbaijan of pro-Armenian bias over the Caucasus countries' territorial conflict.

(With newswires)