From a distance, one could almost confuse it with the New Caledonian flag, as that of Azerbaijan resembles it with its blue, red and green colors. And it is he who we saw floating in New Caledonia from May 13 during the rallies against the reform of the electoral body. More than 13,000 kilometers from the Caillou, Azerbaijan can rejoice in its growing influence on current events in this French territory of Oceania.
For months, this Caucasian country has continued to support independence groups on the Pacific island. An activism denounced by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who regrets “that some of the Caledonian separatists have made a deal with Azerbaijan”. This “deal” would consist, for Baku, of destabilizing France in retaliation for its support for Armenia during the last Nagorno-Karabakh war, in September 2023.
Fight against French colonialism overseas
In the crowd of Kanak demonstrators, some wear t-shirts with a curious logo, that of the Baku Initiative Group (GIB), an Azerbaijani NGO created on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movements in July 2023 and which championed “the fight against colonialism”, with France in its sights. In nine months, the young organization has held eight conferences at the UN or in European capitals, inviting representatives of overseas independence movements, whose press releases it relays on social networks. Its director, Abbas Abbasov, is the former Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan (1992-2006). He recently publicly declared his support for the Kanak struggle. And criticizes France for “intentionally emphasizing the rhetoric of freedom, equality and human rights to justify its actions and present itself as a pioneer of democracy”.
Last week, on May 16, the Baku Initiative Group organized a video conference in which separatists from French Polynesia, French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe and even Corsica participated, “in solidarity with the indigenous peoples of New Caledonia. The recent solidarity between Azerbaijan and the archipelago materialized in April when a delegation from New Caledonia went to Baku, chaired by elected official Omayra Naisseline. On behalf of the Caledonian Congress, she signed a memorandum of parliamentary cooperation with the president of the Azerbaijani parliament, considered as an attempt at foreign interference by Baku in France.
Azerbaijan denies this accusation; the Kanak separatists too. “This media hype about Azerbaijan causing trouble in New Caledonia really annoys us,” says Magalie Tingal, UN representative of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front. “It becomes an insult to our intelligence.” The elected official from the Northern province is one of the initiators of the creation of the GIB last year. “We work with Azerbaijan, of course, but also with many other countries!” she insists.
Concerns for other overseas territories
Seen from Paris, this support from Azerbaijan to New Caledonia is increasingly worrying. “In the space of a few minutes, 5,000 posts from Azerbaijani accounts were sent on social networks concerning New Caledonia and what is presented as the neocolonial policy of Paris,” according to a source close to the matter. Modeling its methods on those of Russia, this destabilization operation is not the first observed by the French authorities in Nouméa. Already in December 2023, during the visit of Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu, two Azerbaijani journalists were turned away by the authorities, identified as close to Azerbaijani intelligence.
“We fear an amplification of the message on the theme of colonization in New Caledonia and a risk of mimicry in other overseas regions,” confides a French diplomat. In French Polynesia, the independence group Tavini Huiraatira, in turn, signed a memorandum of cooperation with Azerbaijani officials at the beginning of May. During the migration crisis in Mayotte and the abolition of land rights mentioned by the French executive, the GIB also massively published press releases advocating the sovereignty of the Comoros archipelago over the island rather than that of France.
In Corsica, during Emmanuel Macron’s visit last February, Azerbaijani journalists specially dispatched to cover the demonstrations of the Nazione independence movement provided a portrait of the Isle of Beauty on the verge of explosion. Overseas as well as in mainland France, Azerbaijan is on the lookout for the slightest spark.
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