Was the violence in New Caledonia at least partly orchestrated by Azerbaijan? That's what Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin insisted on French television on Thursday, May 16. "It's not a fantasy, it's a reality. I regret that some of the Caledonian independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan, that's undeniable. It gives you an idea of what democracy is sometimes like if you listen to certain leaders."
There can be little doubt that Baku has been interfering more or less directly in Caledonian politics for several months now. At the end of March, as noted by Radio France, Azerbaijani flags were present at a protest by Kanak independence fighters, presumably on the initiative of the Baku Initiative Group (GIB).
Created just over a year ago, its official aim is to "support the fight against colonialism and neo-colonialism" in France. As such, its founding conference was attended by representatives of independence movements from Martinique, French Guiana, Corsica, New Caledonia and French Polynesia. Its president, Abbas Abbasov, denied any involvement in the March protests, but T-shirts bearing his organization's logo were worn by protesters on site.
Multiple precedents
In late 2023, French domestic intelligence observed that two Azerbaijani women posing as journalists had traveled to Nouméa to follow the visit of Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu on site. According to Europe 1, which cites sources within the intelligence services, these two women are in fact close to the spy services in Baku. One of them was refused entry to the territory and the other wrote several articles for the Azerbaijani state news agency. on the mobilization of independence fighters, who are highly critical of France.
New Caledonia is not the only place where Azerbaijan has been trying to damage France's image for over a year. After the riots in 2023, a disinformation operation calling for a boycott of the Paris Olympics was broadcast online, with notable scope. This operation, carried out in two stages, was attributed to both Azerbaijani actors by press investigations as well as by Viginum, the state investigation unit on foreign interference. However, a direct link with a state department in Baku could not be established.
On Thursday, a government source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that a campaign linked to these same actors had begun to broadcast "a montage successively showing two white policemen with rifles at aim, then dead Kanaks" the previous day. The disinformation campaign was deemed "quite massive, with around 4,000 publications" generated by networks of pro-Azerbaijan accounts.
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