Aliyev vows to back independence of French ‘colonies’
AZERBAIJANI President Ilham Aliyev has vowed to help the independence cause in France’s overseas territories.
His remarks on the issue Saturday marked the latest in a series of incidents pitting Baku against Paris over long-running conflicts in the Caucasus region.
Aliyev accuses France of interfering in its affairs over its contacts with Armenia, which de facto controlled Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh for decades before Baku regained control through a war in 2020.
In recent months, Azerbaijani leaders have focused on France’s South Pacific territory of New Caledonia, gripped by weeks of violence over the objections of Indigenous Kanak activists to a contentious electoral reform.
Aliyev made his latest comments at a media forum days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris and just after the staging in Baku of a congress bringing together pro-independence groups from New Caledonia and other French territories.
“We will support you until you are free,” Aliyev told the forum, citing French territories that he said were still subject to colonialism.
“Some countries are still suffering from this. The Comoros islands, Mayotte are still under colonial rule. It has been our duty to help these countries liberate themselves from this revolting remnant from the past.”
Earlier this week, an “initiative group” staged a congress in Baku attended by pro-independence groups from New Caledonia and other French territories, including Corsica and Caribbean and Pacific islands.
French media accounts of the meeting said participants sharply criticized French authorities and an Azerbaijani delegation was invited to visit New Caledonia.
France accused Azerbaijan in May of meddling and abetting unrest in New Caledonia by flooding social media with what it said were misleading photos and videos targeting French police.
Azerbaijan has denied the allegations. Azerbaijani authorities accuse France of bias in favor of Armenia in efforts to achieve a peace treaty to end three decades of conflict and in signing defense contracts with authorities in Yerevan. Baku expelled two French diplomats last December.