France blames Azerbaijan for New Caledonia violence: Unpacking their spat

Azerbaijan previously condemned French colonialism in overseas territories, while has France backed Armenia on Nagorno-Karabakh.

France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind protests and violence that have rocked its Pacific island territory of New Caledonia for the past few days over the French government’s decision to change a voting law.

Azerbaijan, which has traditionally had little presence in the Asia Pacific and is nearly 14,000km (8,700 miles) away from New Caledonia, has denied the allegations of interference.

But what’s behind their diplomatic spat and how does New Caledonia figure in it?

Here is what we know so far.

Mass protests erupted in New Caledonia on Tuesday this week after the French parliament passed reforms that allow French people who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years or more to vote in local provincial elections in New Caledonia.

The French government has argued that these reforms uphold democracy in the archipelago. But local people – particularly those from the Indigenous Kanak communities, who make up 40 percent of the islands’ population – fear this will undermine their efforts to win independence from France.

New Caledonia, one of the largest French overseas territories, is located between Australia and Fiji. France occupied the territory in 1853 and purposefully populated it with French citizens who displaced the Indigenous Kanak communities.

Five people have been killed and hundreds injured in the violent protests, which have been accompanied by looting and arson and are the worst violence New Caledonia has experienced in 30 years, experts have said. In response, France declared a state of emergency in New Caledonia on Wednesday and deployed 500 additional military and police