No:568/23, Press release on the speech of a member of the Board of the Baku Initiative Group against French colonialism at the meeting of the 4th Committee of the UN (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
05 October 2023 17:00
We welcome the speech strongly condemning France’s colonial policy delivered on 4 October by Ms. Ella Tokoragi, a member from French Polynesia of the Board of the Baku Initiative Group against French colonialism, which operates under the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), at the meeting of the 4th Committee of the UN (Special Political and Decolonization Committee).
We highly appreciate E. Tokoragi’s gratitude expressed in her speech to the Non-Aligned Movement chaired by our country for defending the struggle of French Polynesia for liberation from colonialism, and support her calls to oppose colonialism, which is a crime against humanity, for the French Government to bear responsibility for the injustice committed against the people of French Polynesia and the damage caused to this country, and for ending colonialism or neocolonialism to stand at the center of international relations.
The aforementioned speech, as well as the discussions held within the framework of the conference entitled “Decolonization: A Quiet Revolution,” organized by the “Baku Initiative Group” at the headquarters of the United Nations on 22 September 2023 in order to deepen cooperation with representatives of France’s overseas territories, as a continuation of the event entitled “Towards the Complete Elimination of Colonialism” held in Baku on 6 July 2023 within the framework of the Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement chaired by Azerbaijan, demonstrated the importance of the fight against neo-colonialist policy.
It is hypocrisy that France, as one of the countries that still continues neocolonialism and attaches no importance to human rights within the framework of its colonial policy, today falsely presents itself as a defender of human rights and international law. France’s continued existence with groundless claims, neocolonialist ambitions and colonial aspirations is doomed to failure.
Today, instead of bearing responsibility for its colonial past, bloody colonial crimes and acts of genocide and learning lessons from history, France’s attempt to apply its neo-colonialist vicious practice in the South Caucasus region by supporting Armenian separatism in the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan, through geopolitical competition and its colonial policy based on “Orientalism,” is equally dangerous and unacceptable.
Azerbaijan, as a country that promotes peace, has always supported the struggle for liberation from colonialism, has spared no support in this direction, and as the Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, has demonstrated its principled position in the fight against new colonial and neocolonial practices as a global platform in the fight against colonialism.
The uncompromising position of our country against colonialism will continue unequivocally hereafter as well.