BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan’s parliament known as on Thursday for France to be stripped of its mediation function within the Nagorno-Karabakh battle to punish the French Senate for adopting a decision backing the area’s independence.

The French decision adopted on Nov. 25 adopted a Russia-brokered ceasefire ending weeks of combating within the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan primarily populated by ethnic Armenians. The ceasefire has been hailed as a victory in Azerbaijan, which recovered management of huge swathes of territory held by Armenians because the early 1990s.

The Azeri parliament urged its authorities to overview ties with Paris and to attraction to the Group for Safety and Co-operation in Europe to revoke France’s function as a co-chair of the so-called Minsk Group, arrange in 1992 to mediate the battle. The USA and Russia are the opposite co-chairs.

The Azeri overseas ministry mentioned the French senate decision, which has no authorized power, had tainted France’s fame as a good mediator and forged doubt on its neutrality. It described the decision as a provocation and mentioned it was biased.

France’s overseas minister on Wednesday dismissed the senate decision, saying it could contradict France’s impartial place and stating that even Armenia itself had not recognised Nagorno-Karabakh.

France’s inhabitants consists of 400,000-600,000 individuals of Armenian origin. President Emmanuel Macron has been cautious to not again a facet within the battle, however has confronted criticism at residence that he didn’t do sufficient to assist Yerevan.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan praised the decision, describing it as a significant first step in the direction of recognising the precise of the area’s individuals to self-determination.

(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku, Nvard Hovhannisyan in Yerevan and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Modifying by Peter Graff)