While the French political class has mostly supported the Armenian camp, Azerbaijan is calling French justice to account. On the basis of the articles of the law of the Penal Code which repress the association of criminals for a terrorist enterprise (AMT) and the mercenarism, the Azeris are calling for prosecution against the French who participated arms in hand in the last conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Penal Code is clear: is liable to prosecution “Any person specially recruited to take part in a concerted act of violence aimed at overthrowing the institutions or undermining the territorial integrity of a State and who is neither a national of the State against which this act is directed, nor member of the armed forces of that State, nor has been sent on mission by a State ”.
Cease-fire
AMT is often used in the case of French jihadists who took part in the war in Syria and Iraq alongside the Islamic State. Baku uses it because, in this region, war has not been officially declared between two belligerent states but between one state, Azerbaijan, and the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, a “self-proclaimed republic” unrecognized by the United Nations.
Contacted by Point, the two prosecuting authorities – the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office and the Paris Prosecutor’s Office – have declared that they will announce in January the follow-up they intend to give to Azerbaijan’s complaint.
Between the end of September, the start of hostilities, and November 10, the date of the ceasefire, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh waged a merciless war. Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azeri territory, wishes its independence, even its attachment to Armenia, while Azerbaijan considers this territory as an integral part of the Republic proclaimed in 1991 at the fall of the USSR.
A young figure of the ultra-right and an ex-robber
During the armed conflict, observers noted the presence of foreign fighters, especially Turkish fighters, in support of Azerbaijan. And the French press echoed the presence of French people, known for their commitment to the extreme right, or of French people of Armenian origin alongside the independence activists of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Young figure of the ultra-right, Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier, 22, from Saint-Cloud, in the Hauts-de-Seine, distinguished himself on social networks by posing weapon in hand. Under judicial supervision in a case of violence against “anti-fas” activists which is due to be tried on January 15, he went to the conflict zone on October 25 after having landed in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. He returned to Paris on November 21, at the limit of compliance with his judicial control which forced him to check in once a month at the police station. Known to the police for a dozen incidents, he is also considered by the intelligence services as the leader of the “Zouaves of Paris”, a violent ultra-right group, founded on the ruins of the GUD. Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier is mentioned by name in the complaint filed by Azerbaijan.
Gilbert Minassian, a 64-year-old Frenchman, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1989 after a robbery dating from 1984 intended to finance the terrorist actions of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (Asala), is him also in the sights of Azerbaijan. Asala, of grim memory, had committed an attack at Orly airport in 1983 which killed eight people and injured around fifty others. Minassian joined Armenia on October 9 to fight alongside Armenians in Karabakh, as he told the newspaper Release before leaving Paris.
From the extreme right or French activists of Armenian origin, they are nearly twenty to have been identified by the authorities in Baku, who for their part issued an arrest warrant against them.
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