BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 24. France should build very strong relations with Azerbaijan; it is a gate to Central Asia, CEO of Paris-based Lagazetteaz.fr online newspaper Jean-Michel Brun said in an exclusive interview with Trend, reports TurkicWorld.

"Even the future of Armenia depends on having good relations with Azerbaijan and Türkiye. Azerbaijan is in the center of everything; it is the gateway of the Caucasus to Central Asia. Normally, we should build very strong relations with Azerbaijan. We need to have very strong economic, but also cultural, links," he said.

Talking about France's supplying military equipment to Armenia, he said that it's a stupid policy.

"But the consequence of the domestic policy is just to show the right-wing parties that we are "saving our civilization against the invasion of the Muslim world". It's completely stupid. But it's not very serious. It's just because the French media say the same thing every day. But as soon as they stop providing this information, everything will change," Brun added.

Double standards in France's foreign policy

"If you are seeking any coherence in the French foreign policy, it will be very difficult for you. The main problem is that usually the enemies of our friends are our enemies, and the friends of our friends are our friends, but it's very different. For instance, France is the friend of Armenia and the enemy of Iran, but Iran is the friend of Armenia. So it's not coherent at all. In fact, I think that French foreign policy is ruled by domestic policy. We have a huge Armenian diaspora of 800,000 people in France, and this diaspora is very powerful because they lead most of the media. They are able to vote in the election, and so on. They are very powerful and concentrated in the three main cities in France: Paris, Lyon, and Marseille. This is, of course, a reason," he said.

Brun believes the second reason is that the French policy is now far right-wing.

"And they, with the complicity of Armenia, are trying to turn this conflict into a civilizational conflict. That means that we are supporting Christian Armenia against Muslim Azerbaijan. Everybody knows that Azerbaijan is a secular country. So it's stupid, but it's the way they do politics. So don't be surprised by this incoherence with this double language. We have the same language, for instance, for the Middle East conflict now. So it's the way France is working now," he said.

The French journalist noted that the Armenian diaspora in his country is strong because "we let it be strong, in fact". Armenians put millions of dollars into communication because it was their last fight, he added.

"I remember a few weeks ago, the Azerbaijan ambassador in France, Leyla Abdullayeva made some interviews on the television channel. And these interviews were very powerful. I received phone calls from everywhere, even from the United States. And they said "this is wonderful; we have learned something". Because in the French media, we say that Azerbaijan has "attacked the Armenians" and "occupied Karabakh". It's exactly the opposite. So she said, it's exactly the opposite. Of course, we have four United Nations resolutions saying that Karabakh is Azerbaijani. When the Armenians left Karabakh, Khanrendi, they left not because Azerbaijan wanted them to leave but because they decided to leave. So it's very important to communicate. Some journalists, like me, do their best. Of course, you have this tremendous weight of Armenian communication. But we can do something, of course," said Brun.

Growing nationalism in France

Brun noted that when a country feels weak, it's trying to find a common enemy.

"Nothing is going on in France. We have a lack of doctors and teachers, and the taxes are very heavy. We have to be proud again to be French, because, really, the French are now desperate. The question is, what exactly does it mean to be French? You can't answer this question. And when you ask this question, it leads to racism and xenophobia. They found some domestic and foreign enemies. Domestic enemies are said to be Muslims. We have 10 million Muslims in France. And abroad, the enemies are said to be the so-called Muslim countries, like Türkiye and Azerbaijan. This is a problem. In France, the Muslims have a really hard time. They forbid people to demonstrate their support for Palestine. You went to a demonstration supporting Palestine and got a fine," he said.

He believes that not only the government but also the political parties are making a big mistake, thinking that they can grab their voices only from the far right.

"I know it's stupid; it's racism and xenophobia. It's because Sarkozy lost his re-election after Hollande lost his re-election. When you want to have a foreign policy, you need a vision. And these two former presidents and this one have no vision at all. So when you have no vision, you have no foreign policy. And they don't realize that the world is changing," added Brun.

He highlighted the importance of the Baku-hosted international conference on decolonization held a couple of days ago.

"We had in Baku this huge conference of the Non-Aligned Movement about the struggle against colonialism. France does not realize that colonialism is over now. For years and years, France stole the human resources and the earth resources of all these countries. If you have in front of you a big bowl of sweets and you can eat as much as you want, and one day the people say we take this bowl out, of course you are angry and hungry. And that's exactly what happened. They don't understand that the earth does not belong to any of the three countries in the world anymore. The French Empire, the British Empire, and the Spanish Empire don't exist anymore. We have people in France who have this kind of nostalgia for the time of the colonies. Some people think that Algeria should still belong to France. We have to change their minds. And what happened in Baku is very interesting because we had representatives of all 18 lands of France together, saying that they wanted autonomy and independence. And I think it was the first time that all of them said they wanted to be free. I think that it will really change things," Brun said.

Failure of Macron in Africa

"I think Macron is not realistic. When he's abroad, he looks ridiculous with his behavior. Once, there was a meeting between Macron and the presidents of African countries. Macron asked the president of an African country to fix the air conditioning. It is ridiculous. He is in a world that doesn't exist. He's living somewhere else. And that's why French people are not satisfied at all. Macron is an opportunist. A few days ago, we had a big demonstration against anti-Semitism, but it was obvious that this demonstration was turning into an Islamophobic one, and he didn't attend it. All the government was there, but not him. But when he feels that Islamophobia is a good thing for him to fight against immigration, against Muslims, he uses it," he noted.

Brun believes that African policy was a failure of not only Macron but also Hollande, Sarkozy, and even Chirac.

"Because they don't accept that there is no more French empire. We grew up with the idea of a French empire. They used Africa or Polynesia as a place for taking resources. The French industry was developed thanks to Algerian oil, and nuclear weapons could be developed thanks to Polynesia because we made the bombing test in Polynesia. After they wanted to keep it as French property But the world is changing; we know what liberty really means," he said.

The future of relations between Azerbaijan and France

"I'm sure that strong links between Azerbaijan and France will be profitable to everybody. We have strong cultural links between France and Azerbaijan. I think in the future, we will have very strong links between Azerbaijan and France. I think everything will be fixed, maybe sooner than we think, because the French people don't care about Armenia at all. They even don't know where Armenia is. I don't think that we will be more involved in the Caucasus," he noted.

Brun pointed out that all the people he knows who have visited Azerbaijan all say it's a wonderful country.

"I don't know anybody who says they don't like Azerbaijan. They love this country," he concluded.