Azernews.Az

By Qabil Ashirov, AZERNEWS

Amid the protests flared up in New Caledonia France has once again shown its true color. As the saying goes, a person who lives in a glass house shouldn’t throw a stone. France has supported separatists throughout the world under the pretext of self-determination and democracy to interfere with the domestic issues of countries. However, when the pro-independence protests started to be held in New Caledonia, France took the most strict measures that Paris had condemned other countries over their similar initiatives to suppress separatism earlier.

For example, when Armenian separatists together with the Armenian Republic attacked Azerbaijan to grab more territories in 2020, the French Parliament recognized the self-styled artsakh. Later, when Azerbaijan established the border checking point in Lachin, French politicians interpreted it as "a restriction of freedom of local people”. In other words, according to French politicians Azerbaijan should not set up a border checkpoint on its territories. To top it all off, when the Azerbaijani Law enforcement agents detained the leaders of separatists who had decimated hundreds of people and looted their properties, Paris criticised Baku once again.

However, France deployed its army to New Caledonia when local pro-independence Kanakis held protests against new amendments that gave Paris an upper hand in a possible referendum. Besides, Police cracked civil protests and several civilians lost their lives. In addition, France detained one Azerbaijani journalist who tried to illuminate the process. Needless to say, such actions violate international norms and it is against freedom of speech. Besides, France detained pro-independence activists and their leaders and took them to Paris. So, France can crush the civil protests held by local people, arrest pro-independence activists of New Caledonia, and detain foreign journalists, but other countries including Azerbaijan cannot do it. In addition, it should be emphasized that unlike Qarabag, which has been an integral part of Azerbaijan throughout history, New Caledonia became part of France in the 1870s. All historical sources, including Armenian ones, confirm that Qarabag was part of states, such as Albania, Shirvanshahs, and Khanates which are considered the antecedes of modern Azerbaijan. However, all historical sources confirm that France invaded New Caledonia in the 1870s and has been exploiting it since that time.

The brutality of France has not been limited to only the above-mentioned. Restricting the dissemination of police violence against civilians, Paris blocked social media such as TikTok. Besides, at the behest of Paris, X, and other Western social media deleted the accounts of people who shared posts related to the issue.

As an aside, the West fiercely chastised Egypt, when Hosni Mubarak's government blocked then-Tweeter (X) during protests which led to the coup d'etat in the country. Even the same West, going further, extolled the role of social media in the toppling of the legal government in Egypt. However, now the same social media is doing a 180, i.e. deleting the accounts of protestors and acting together with the government. Once again, all these prove that there is no pure democracy in the world, but only imitation or imposition of democracy. More precisely, Azerbaijan cannot take the same measurements on its historical territories, which France has taken in its colony. When Azerbaijan takes some measures it is interpreted as undemocratic but France does it, it is ok.

It reminds me of the sentence that all ships must sail in the same direction in one American movie. If not, then Western hegemons try to punish the ship which has its own heading. Unfortunately, democracy and human rights have turned into a part of the Western hegemon's punitive measures.

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