Azerbaijani authorities have condemned French President Emmanuel Macron's statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, calling it "completely unacceptable." The spokesperson also responded to Paris' accusations, saying, "We completely reject all of them. We reject any link between Azerbaijan and the leaders of the freedom struggle in the Caucasus." Additionally, Hacizade responded to Macron's statement about the connection between France and Armenia by stating, "We deny any link between Azerbaijan and the leaders of the freedom struggle in the Caucasus." Social media posts widely shared show some pro-independence activists wearing Azerbaijani flags during a TV report broadcasted on French TF1 channel. The tension between Paris and Baku has increased since Azerbaijan regained control over the region in 2020 and 2023 wars. France hosts a large Armenian diaspora and is also an ally of Ermenistan, Azerbaijan's historical rival. Darmanin accused Azerbaijan of being a dictatorship led by President Ilham Aliyev, who replaced his father Heydar Aliyev in 2003. The French government has banned TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, from hosting content promoting the protest in New Karabakh. Critics argue that TikTok's parent company, China, uses the platform to disseminate disinformation. Azerbaijan invited separatists from Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia, and French Polynesia to a conference in Baku this week, where they established the "Baku Initiative Group" to support what they called a just struggle. The spokesperson for the Azerbaijani authorities said, "We are in solidarity with the separatists and support their just struggle." In June's European Parliament elections, French Socialist MP Raphael Glucksmann claimed on Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had been interfering for years and said the source of dissatisfaction was not foreign interference but internal problems. However, Glucksmann also called for Azerbaijan to deal with its own issues.
