President’s assistant: Azerbaijan deeply concerned with ongoing colonialism

Assistant of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev has shared a new post on X.

Hajiyev wrote key messages of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s address to the participants of the International Conference themed “Neocolonialism: Human Rights Violations and Injustice” taking place in Baku on October 20, 2023, Caliber.Az reports citing Hajiyev’s message on X.

• Azerbaijan is deeply concerned with the ongoing colonialism and its reemerging manifestations. Although 70 years have passed since the Bandung Conference, some countries continue to pursue colonialism. Among those, the foremost one is France.  
• France had occupied tens of countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Latin America, plundered their resources, and for many years oppressed their peoples while perpetrating numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• Throughout 30 years in the XX century, France had conducted nearly 200 nuclear tests in French Polynesia and 17 nuclear tests in Algeria.
• Nations such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mali, Djibouti, Nigeria, Chad, Senegal, Vietnam, the Comoros Islands, Haiti, and others continue to grapple with the dire repercussions of French occupation.        
• France ranks among the leading nations globally in terms of landmine use. Over five million mines were planted across Algeria alone.
• France, unable to abandon its colonialism history, disregards the aspirations and the rights of the peoples outside of France – overseas communities and territories of the Pacific and Atlantic and goes out of its way to undermine the realisation of those aspirations.          
• The social situation in French Guiana is gradually deteriorating; nearly half of the population is on the edge of poverty, and unemployment is rising yearly.
• Martinique and Guadeloupe face two significant disasters. The indigenous population is subjected to assimilation through clandestine and illicit resettlement.
• France refuses to recognize the sovereignty of the Union of Comoros over the Island of Mayotte.
• A referendum is held in New Caledonia without the participation of half its population, depriving them of their right to independence.       
• France, which rejects the concept of ethnic minorities, is prohibiting the Corsican language. Pursuing the policy of hypocrisy and double standards, France is simultaneously attempting to position itself as a defender of national minorities in our region. 
• We register widespread racism and Islamophobia across France, along with neocolonialism trends.
• We must deliver the neocolonialism issue to the international community's attention through all possible platforms. In that regard, the UN General Assembly Fourth Committee (Political and Decolonisation) activity must be re-energised, Hajiyev wrote.

Key messages of President Ilham Aliyev’s address to the participants of the International Conference themed “Neocolonialism: Human Rights Violations and Injustice” taking place in Baku on October 20th, 2023. Full text: https://t.co/HGU6uEF2gT#BIG #neocolonialism
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— Hikmet Hajiyev (@HikmetHajiyev) October 20, 2023