Azerbaijan expels French diplomats amid Armenia tensions

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said that two French diplomats had been ordered to leave the country over actions "incompatible with their diplomatic status." 

The ministry said in a statement that it had summoned French ambassador Anne Boillon to voice a "strong protest over the actions of two employees of the French Embassy." 

It said the pair were given 48 hours to leave the country. 

But the statement did not provide the exact reason for the two diplomats being sent home.

Tense ties amid talks with Armenia after Nagorno-Karabakh takeover

The move comes amid strained ties between Baku and Paris as  European powers attempt to mediate between Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia. 

Azerbaijan reclaimed the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, over which the rivals fought two wars in recent decades, in a lightning offensive in September against Armenian separatists who had controlled it since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In October, President Ilham Aliyev refused to attend a round of talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, citing what he said was the EU and France's "biased position" on the dispute. 

France's President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Council President Charles Michel had been set to mediate at that meeting.

In November, Aliyev accused France of inciting conflicts in the Caucasus in recent decades by arming Armenia.

France is home to a large Armenian diaspora and has often been accused of partiality by Baku.

msh/dj (AFP, EFE)