Executive Director of the Baku Initiative Group (BIG), Abbas Abbasov has responded to the accusations made in the documentary “Complément d’enquête” (Further Investigation) aired on France’s public television, and in the article based on it titled “Foreign interference: Did Azerbaijan spark the unrest in New Caledonia in May 2024?”, APA reports.
Abbas Abbasov stated that in response to the international conference “Decolonization: The Silent Revolution” organized by the Baku Initiative Group on April 15, 2025, at the UN Headquarters in New York with the participation of representatives fighting for the independence of territories under French colonial rule, another biased and ethically questionable program was aired against the activities of the Baku Initiative Group on France’s public television on April 17:“In fact, there was no real need to respond to the broadcast. The accusations had already been answered by Nouméa Prosecutor Yves Dupas and Mikael Forrest, a representative of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS). As it is mentioned, the French government monitors phone calls, keeps bank accounts under complete surveillance, and even conducts house raids and inspections. If there had been any intervention by BIG, we can say with certainty that the French side would have made a big show of it. The absence of any factual evidence forces the French government to commission such hypocritical broadcasts.”
As for the “popcorn show” resembling a Hollywood movie, the Baku Initiative Group (BIG) rejects the baseless, non-objective, and biased accusations made against its activities carried out within the framework of international law, as well as against the representatives of the Kanak people regarding the events that took place in Kanaky in May 2024.
This broadcast, produced at the behest of the French government, is not only “fake news” but also another “justification” for evading the demands of the peoples still held under French colonial rule.
Attempts to prevent BIG, which operates on the territory of Azerbaijan — a center for the struggle against colonialism and its modern manifestations — from watching and responding to this broadcast is yet another manifestation of the French government’s disgusting colonialist face.
French journalists who were granted access to Azerbaijan and who filmed the side event organized by BIG did not consider it necessary to request a response from BIG regarding the accusations they voiced. However, objective journalism requires this. Promoting one-sided opinions is proof of bias.
We advise the French government, as well as French television channels, to spend the large sums of money they allocate to investigating BIG on improving the social welfare of the Kanak people instead. As clearly seen in the footage shown in the broadcast, the Kanak people live in extremely difficult conditions and economic hardship as a result of colonialism and its lingering effects.
The French government, which created an artificial enemy image of the Baku Initiative Group (BIG), continues to deceive the international and French public, and once promoted the "right to humanitarian intervention" through the figure of former Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, hypocritically accuses BIG of interfering in France's internal affairs.
In 2020, the United Nations General Assembly declared the years 2021-2030 as the Fourth Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism under Resolution 75/123. BIG, hoping that the Fourth Decade will be the final one, will continue to support the universal decolonization process within the framework of international law.
BIG calls on the French government to abandon its colonialist policies and respect the decolonization rights of the peoples of Kanaky, Mao’hi Nui, Mayotte, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin, French Guiana, Réunion, Wallis and Futuna, and Corsica and also offers its mediation role in this matter to the French government.
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