France’s government says it has no doubt that Azerbaijan is stirring tensions in New Caledonia, despite the vast geographical and cultural distance between the Caspian country and the French Pacific territory.
Azerbaijan has said it rejects the accusation that it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the government in Paris.
It is the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind a disinformation campaign.
The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by a new electoral law that supporters of independence say will dilute the vote of the indigenous Kanak population.
The French government points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests; while a group linked to the authorities in Azerbaijan is openly backing separatists while condemning the government in Paris.
“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.
“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable.”
But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference … France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better.”
What has Azerbaijan said?
“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” said Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Ayhan Hajizadeh. “We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”
In images widely shared on social media, footage broadcast on Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts bearing the Azerbaijani flag.
Tensions between the French and Azerbaijan governments have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.
France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.
Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father, Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.
On Wednesday, the French government banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.
TikTok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.
What is Azerbaijan’s relationship with New Caledonia?
Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, for a conference in July 2023.
The meeting led to the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.
The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.
Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40% of the population.
“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.
‘Massive campaign’
Raphaël Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European parliamentary elections, told Public Senat television Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere … for months”.
He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”. But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems”.
A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.
“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with about 4,000 posts generated by [these] accounts,” the source told AFP. “They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”
In November, France accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.
Agence France-Presse
