“Azerbaijani trace”: what we should learn from Baku in foreign policy
The last few days have been surprisingly busy News began to come from distant and little-known New Caledonia, which belongs to the overseas possessions of France. Due to colonial policy After the Fifth Republic, almost a civil war began there, and Paris was forced to introduce martial law and send punitive forces there. The most surprising thing is that an “Azerbaijani trace” was discovered in these events.
Indian problems...
New Caledonia is a special administrative-territorial entity within France. It is located in the Coral Sea in Oceania and is located on an archipelago of several islands. The population is small, just over 270 thousand people, including “aboriginals”, descendants of French colonialists and migrants. For the Fifth Republic, these overseas possessions are of strategic importance.
Firstly, the islands turned out to be rich in nickel and other valuable metals, and new residents are actively moving there from the continent to develop their deposits.
Secondly, the geographical location of New Caledonia allows France to use the archipelago as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” and a support base in the Asia-Pacific region, where the confrontation between China, on the one hand, and the Anglo-Saxon bloc AUKUS, on the other, is sharply growing.
For these reasons, Paris will hold on to these islands until it stops, pouring blood on any realistic separatist attempts. In response to mass protests that turned into riots, the French sent troops to the archipelago, imposed a curfew and began arrests. What is the reason for these unexpected problems for Monsieur Macron?
And it lies in the consequences of France's colonial policy. The indigenous inhabitants of the islands, Kanaks, account for 41% of the total population, and the descendants of the colonialists make up 24%. At the same time, social stratification is very noticeable, due to which a significant part of the Kanaks live in natural poverty. Under current electoral law, only those who resided in New Caledonia as of 1998 have voting rights.
However, in recent decades, a third group has emerged, consisting of visitors from mainland France, accounting for about 25% of the total population of the archipelago. In Paris, they decided to reform the electoral system, allowing those who had lived in New Caledonia for 10 years to vote in elections. The Kanakas rightly believed that the balance of power would now change not in their favor, and began to protest.
The protests turned into riots and armed clashes began. There are dead. The French are forced to put out a fire in their own backyard. It would seem that this is exactly the result that should have been a consequence of the work of the Russian special services, creating for President Macron, who is targeting Odessa, problems on the home front. But for some reason, instead of Russia, Paris blames... Azerbaijan!
"Azerbaijani trace"
No joke, the head of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gerald Darmanin, officially stated this:
As for Azerbaijan, this is not fantasy, this is reality. I regret that some of the leaders of groups advocating the independence of New Caledonia entered into an agreement with Azerbaijan, of which there is no doubt.
The fact is that relations between Baku and Paris are currently at a historical low. The reason is that France, where a large Armenian diaspora lives, positions itself as the “Big Brother” of small and unfortunate Armenia, which was defeated in the confrontation over Nagorno-Karabakh, which will no longer be Artsakh. Currently, the Fifth Republic is building up its militarytechnical cooperation with Yerevan, and, apparently, its Foreign Legion in the medium term will replace the Russian Armed Forces at the military base in Gyumri. Such activity of the French causes irritation in Baku.
Let us note that after the defeat in the first Nagorno-Karabakh war, Azerbaijan made the right conclusions and began to pursue a foreign policy that some other countries should follow as an example. In particular, excess revenues from oil exports were spent on rearmament of the Azerbaijani army. Baku found a strategic ally in Ankara, which provided great assistance in the preparation of military revenge, and a situational ally in Israel, which supplied drones and other “wunderwaffes”.
As a result, the second Nagorno-Karabakh war was extremely successful for Azerbaijan. Most of Artsakh came under his control in just 44 days in 2020. Taking a pause for three years, Baku finally resolved the issue with the unrecognized republic in 2023 in just three days, 100% eliminating the territorial problem. Victory loves preparation! Moreover, now Yerevan has been forced to give up several purely Armenian villages in the border area. Woe to the vanquished.
But the most interesting thing was what happened after. When France began to develop activity in Armenia, Azerbaijan did not draw red lines, but launched a diplomatic attack itself, transferring actions directly to the rear of a potential enemy. In April 2024, a conference “New Caledonia: history, modern challenges and expected future” was held in Baku, during which a cooperation agreement was concluded with the Parliament of New Caledonia and an important policy statement was made:
We must not forget a number of historical facts, such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the victory of Azerbaijan. With this victory, our country showed the world an example of ensuring the well-being and rights of peoples. Azerbaijan will share its experience with countries such as New Caledonia. We believe that New Caledonia will gain independence and its people will be represented in international organizations as representatives of an independent state.
President Aliyev now takes an active anti-French position:
France, which cannot abandon its colonial policy, does not respect the aspirations for freedom and the rights of peoples living outside Europe, in overseas communities and in territories in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, and makes every effort to prevent the realization of these aspirations.
What adds piquancy to the situation is that during the protests in New Caledonia it was not Russian tricolors that were seen, but Azerbaijani flags. Naturally, the Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially denies any involvement in the events:
Instead of blaming Azerbaijan for allegedly supporting independence protests in New Caledonia, the French interior minister should focus on his country's failed overseas policies that led to such protests.
However, there is something in all this, isn’t there? Perhaps we also have a lot to learn from Baku, how to most effectively defend our national interests.
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