Between 2017 and 2023, Alain Roumestand was Aliyev's propaganda relay in France, alongside other lobbyists for the Azerbaijani dictatorship.
Alain Roumestand, born in 1949, is a former high school principal and radio host at Radio Grand Ciel. He has also been a freelance writer since 2008. Presented by Azerbaijani media outlets as a journalist and historian, Alain Roumestand in fact only holds a master's degree in “history and the press” obtained in 1973 from the University of Orléans.
Active since 2017 within the pro-Azerbaijan lobby - like a good number of other lobbyists still active - Alain Roumestand was most likely “recruited” at the time of the renewal of Azerbaijan's influence strategy in France, with the arrival in power of Emmanuel Macron and the En Marche party.
Invited to the Azerbaijani embassy in May 2017 for Independence Day, Alain Roumestand began his activities for Azerbaijan in earnest in June 2017 with an interview with the former Azerbaijani ambassador to France, Elchin Amirbayov. Alain Roumestand employs the same methods as other lobbyists such as Sébastien Boussois, using the participative spaces of media such as Mediapart, Causeur or AgoraVox, to spread Azerbaijani propaganda. With the creation of the French-speaking pro-Azerbaijan media relay Caucase de France, Alain Roumestand has also found a new platform for expression.
Subsequently, the “journalist” would write articles using the language of Azerbaijani propaganda, particularly on the subject of Artsakh. In 2021, for example, on Mediapart's participative space, he wrote the article "Connaissez-vous Khodjaly? The same year, on Caucase de France, he wrote the article “Alain Roumestand: La France peut continuer sa politique de développement réciproque avec l'Azerbaïdjan”.
In April 2020, Alain Roumestand travels to Azerbaijan. Then in 2022, he wrote an article in collaboration with photographer Grégory Herpe, about his impressions following a trip to the “liberated territories” of Artsakh. It seems that Alain Roumestand also took part in the trip, as he appears in a photograph taken in Shushi, alongside Grégory Herpe and Mirvari Fataliyeva, coordinator of the pro-Azerbaijan lobby in France.
In February 2022, Alain Roumestand published an interview in Causeur with “independent international development consultant” Kamala Murad. In fact, this was the Azerbaijani Kamala Muradova, project director at GILAN Holdinq, the Azerbaijani investment fund owned by the Aliyev family. Even today, Alain Roumestand is a full participant in Azerbaijan's disinformation policy in France.
Azerbaijan uses all available means and relays to silence its wars and crimes.
