This country has been accused of blowing on the embers for several months. The Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories Gérald Darmanin once again accused Azerbaijan of interference in New Caledonia on Thursday May 16, while the archipelago is in the grip of unprecedented riots since 1988.
As he was asked if this country, pro-Russian, as well as Russia and China, were interfering in New Caledonia, the minister replied on France 2: “On Azerbaijan, it is not a fantasy, it is “is a reality”, regretting “that some of the Caledonian separatists have made a deal with Azerbaijan”. On Wednesday, the government also banned the Chinese social network TikTok, widely used by rioters, in New Caledonia. But what exactly does Paris blame?
A memorandum of cooperation
Controversy has been growing over Azerbaijan’s influence since the signing in April of a memorandum of cooperation between the Congress of New Caledonia and the National Assembly of Azerbaijan. Initialed on April 18 by Omayra Naisseline, elected from the UC-FLNKS (independence) group, on behalf of Congress President Roch Wamytan, this text aims to develop relations between the two chambers, particularly in matters of culture, education and politics. .
The Caledonian non-independence activists had denounced an agreement “not having been the subject of any consultation”, with a country which was “guilty of horrible crimes against its own population”. “Azerbaijan is trying to use the Caledonian file […] to respond to the defense of the Armenians and the massacre of Armenians by the Azerbaijani power”, estimated last April, Gérald Darmanin, who said he was “deeply” shocked.
For several months, Azerbaijan has criticized Paris for its support for Armenia. Accusing France of pursuing a policy going “against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan”, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Azerbaijani parliament recommended in January to cut all economic ties with Paris and to expel French companies. “These political protocols are obviously not possible in the political sense of the term, not morally acceptable,” said Gérald Darmanin, regretting that some separatists “see Azerbaijan as a lifeline.”
This agreement “questions us about the deep will of a certain number of groups which have taken Azerbaijan as a political model – which must not be the one which must develop in New Caledonia”, he insisted.
Azerbaijan had already invited the separatists of Martinique, Guyana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku in July 2023. From this conference was born the “Baku Initiative Group” which aims to support “the French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”. In a statement published Tuesday in French by Azertac, the state news agency of Azerbaijan, the Baku Initiative Group condemned “the arrest of the Kanaks and the acts of violence of the French authorities against civilians in New Caledonia.
Glucksmann chairs commission on foreign interference
MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, who chaired a European Parliament committee on foreign interference, also denounced on Public Senate “an attempt at interference” by Azerbaijan “for months already”.
“It is not foreign actors who are creating the tension. In this case, it is a constitutional reform, it is an internal problem. But they are seizing internal problems to rub salt in the wounds and to tense the situation”, denounced the head of the socialist list in the European elections of June 9. “Authoritarian regimes like Russia, Azerbaijan, but also China seize the slightest flaw in our societies to polarize public debate and create chaos,” he underlined.