Why is France accusing Azerbaijan of meddling in New Caledonia?
French Home Affairs Minister Gerard Darmanin has accused Azerbaijan of colluding with pro-independence forces in New Caledonia – the French overseas territory in the southwest Pacific about 1,200 km east of Australia.
“This is not a fantasy. This is reality. Unfortunately, some independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan, this is indisputable,” Darmanin said in an interview with France-2 on Thursday.
Is there any truth in the claim? What’s the backstory? Here’s what we know.
🔻 Baku rejected Paris’s allegations, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada urging Darmanin to “focus on his country’s failed overseas policies” which caused the wave of violent protests in New Caledonia, “instead of blaming Azerbaijan” for its troubles.
🔻Darmanin’s assertions followed the memorandum of cooperation between the Azerbaijani Parliament and New Caledonia’s Congress, which was signed last month, envisioned as a treatise for developing a framework for parliamentary cooperation.
🔻 The agreement sparked accusations by Paris that Baku was stoking separatism in the French overseas territory. Azerbaijan dismissed the claims, and recalled France’s own controversial policies in the Caucasus.
🔻“It’s known that the French Parliament, at the initiative of the ruling party of France, adopted decisions and resolutions which recognized the separatist regime, challenged and harmed the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, and enabled the activity of a ‘friendship group’ with the former so-called separatist regime,” Baku said in an April 30 statement, referring to the Karabakh conflict.
🔻 New Caledonia has been rocked by violent clashes starting May 13 over the constitutional reform proposals to change voting law. Protests have claimed four lives, with France deploying the military and imposing a state of emergency until the end of May.
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