Azerbaijan intensifies anti-colonial rhetoric targeting France

In a move reflecting simmering diplomatic tensions with France, Azerbaijan hosted the “First Congress of Independence Movements from French-Colonised Territories” on 17-18 July.

Organised by the Baku Initiative Group (BIG), an NGO closely linked to the Azerbaijani government, the event gathered pro-independence activists from regions including French Polynesia and New Caledonia.

This conference follows a contentious arms deal between France and Armenia, further straining Baku-Paris relations. Azerbaijan’s use of anti-colonial rhetoric and strategic alliances with illiberal countries highlight its shifting foreign policy and authoritarian tendencies.

During the conference, Abbas Abbasov, head of BIG, announced plans to offer scholarships to “young people from countries struggling with colonialism” to study in Azerbaijan. He also revealed that an exhibition on “the history of colonialism” will be featured at the upcoming COP29 in Baku in November.

“French pioneers of democracy” violate human rights in colonized regions, and the BIG has effectively delivered the reality in above-mentioned regions through international events to the global community,” Abbasov said in an interview on 15 May.

The conference follows a 17 June contract between France and Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and former foe, for the purchase of CAESAR self-propelled howitzers, which provoked a strong reaction from Azerbaijani authorities.

On 18 June, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defence released a statement accusing French President Emmanuel Macron’s administration of “pursuing a policy of militarisation and geopolitical intrigue in the region”.

The ministry argued that France’s provision of artillery systems to Armenia contradicts its earlier claims of supplying only defensive military aid. At the same time, Baku is pursuing its own arms purchases from countries such as Belarus, Israel, Russia, and Turkey.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova echoed the same narrative, stating that “Paris is provoking another round of armed confrontation in the South Caucasus, and they are doing it in different ways”.

Azerbaijan has intensified its use of anti-colonial rhetoric to target France since last year when Baku seized control of the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region from separatists in a lightning military offensive.

Seeking to maintain a favourable military and diplomatic balance vis-à-vis Yerevan following the 2020 war, Baku is concerned about Paris’s support for Armenia.

President Ilham Aliyev himself accused Paris of “disrupting stability not only in its former and current colonies but also in the South Caucasus, where it is supporting separatist trends and separatists” in November 2023.

Meanwhile, Macron has defended supplying arms to Armenia, noting that it is aimed at0 avoiding war.

“If you look at the past decade, it seems that Azerbaijan did equip itself much more than Armenia,” Macron said at a press conference on the sidelines of the 4th European Political Community Summit in UK on 18 July.

“And if my memory is right […] Azerbaijan did launch a war, and a terrible one, in 2020. It is normal to answer the request of a sovereign country which wants to equip itself, feeling it can be attacked by another country.”

Bahruz Samadov, a researcher at Charles University in Prague, argues that the Aliyev government instrumentalizes the anti-colonial narrative for authoritarian purposes by focusing solely on France’s colonial history while ignoring the colonial past of other countries, including its close partner Britain.

He points to the recent arrests of dozens of civil society members and journalists as evidence of growing authoritarianism.

Ahead of hosting COP29, the Azerbaijani authorities have ramped up the crackdown on the remaining vestiges of the country’s civil society. In 2024, Freedom House rated Azerbaijan among the “not free” countries, giving it seven out of 100 points in the Global Freedom Index.

The country currently ranks 164th among 180 countries in the annual Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders.

Strategic alliances and shift

As Baku aims to become a significant trade partner with the West, it seeks to build alliances with like-minded illiberal countries that are sceptical of Western liberalism.

A key component of this coalition-building strategy is the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS), which includes nations leaning towards strong rulers, such as Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan, as well as Hungary, Turkmenistan, and the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus holding observer status.

During the opening session of the OTS meeting in Shusha on 6 July, President Aliyev expressed a desire for the organisation to evolve into an “influential global entity” capable of protecting regional interests and practices from external influence.

The OTS, important for the expansion of the East-West transport corridor, also reflects the increasingly anti-Western orientation in Baku’s new foreign policy.

“Should we bow to those who do not want to accept us somewhere? Absolutely not! Our family is the Turkic world. We feel perfectly fine there. We have brotherly relations with all countries that are members of the Organisation of Turkic States, and our policy is to solidify the [OTS],” Aliyev said in his inauguration speech in February.

Turning away from the West, Baku is also shifting its focus to the non-Turkic East, aiming to become a full member of BRICS and seeking observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

“Unlike Western institutions, such alliances are more convenient for Aliyev since they don’t care about human rights or democracy,” former Azerbaijani diplomat Emin Shaig told Euractiv.

This article is part of the FREIHEIT media project on Europe’s Neighbourhood, funded by the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF).

[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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