The Parliament of the autocratic state of the Caucasus, accused by the French government of interference in the crisis in New Caledonia, welcomes Polynesian elected officials this Thursday to discuss the “challenges and prospects” of this overseas territory.
In its attempts to destabilize French overseas territories, Azerbaijan persists and signs. While the French government has accused the autocratic state of the Caucasus of interference in the riots which have shaken New Caledonia over the past two weeks, the Parliament in Baku invited Polynesian elected officials this Thursday for a conference on the “decolonization” of their territory. The meeting, titled “Right of French Polynesia to decolonization: challenges and perspectives”must bring together the heads of committees and the secretaries of the Parliament of French Polynesia, as well as the leaders of the ruling party, Tavini Huira’atirak, noted the official Azerbaijani news agency.
The head of the LR list for the Europeans François-Xavier Bellamy was outraged on Wednesday at the holding of this conference, at a time when the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin clearly accused the pro-Russian regime in Baku of blowing up the embers of anger in New Caledonia. “How long will the State let Aliyev work to fracture France?”, wrote the MEP on Some even went so far as to brandish the portrait of the autocrat Ilham Aliev, the Azeri president.
“Separation of powers”
Contacted by us, the Azerbaijani embassy in Paris emphasizes that “it is not the government which is at the initiative of this conference” and recalls the principle of “separation of powers”. “When in the Senate, LR elected officials receive separatist Armenian representatives (a term used by Azerbaijan to designate the authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Baku reconquered last September, editor’s note), it is not the French government which receives them, therefore Azerbaijan does not see any interference in its internal affairs”, argues the diplomatic representation. “It is therefore time for this false trial of supposed interference to stop”. It should be noted, however, that Azerbaijan has a unicameral legislative system and that the ruling party, that of the current head of state Ilham Aliyev, holds an overwhelming majority.
Already in recent months, French overseas elected officials had been invited, all expenses paid, to Baku to participate in round tables on “French colonialism”. Initiatives that Azerbaijan justifies by its status as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, of which it served as general secretariat from 2019 until last January. This organization created in 1961 in Belgrade between countries wishing to line up neither behind the United States nor behind the USSR, has today mutated to become an anti-Western club.
Reacting to Gérald Darmanin’s comments in mid-May, Azerbaijan nonetheless judged the accusations of interference “unfounded”, and qualified the remarks of the Minister of the Interior as“insulting”. “We deny any link between the leaders of the Caledonian freedom struggle and Azerbaijan”assured Azerbaijani diplomacy, castigating “a campaign of slander” led by Paris.