BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 3. The support group for the Corsican people, established in the Azerbaijani parliament, has issued a statement, Trend reports.
“On January 28, 2024, around 700 people on Corsica founded a new, Nazione movement which unites structures and activists advocating for independence and confirms its commitment to the struggle against French colonial rule.
The dictatorship of Macron's police, which attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and is only democracy on paper, without showing respect for the Corsicans' right to freely express their opinions, began persecuting Nazione activists two days after the movement's establishment.
On January 30, two Nazione activists were arrested on the orders of the French National Prosecutor for combating terrorism and initially taken to the military camp in Borgo, and from there as terrorists to Paris. The French police attacked the homes of Nazione activists, blew up doors with explosives, used physical force against fathers in front of their children, destroyed their homes, and deliberately broke children's toys. Then, the detained activists' family members, as well as another activist, were taken to the police for questioning.
For a country that positions itself as the 'homeland of human rights' blowing up the door of a house with minors inside is hypocrisy. These acts of violence once again prove that France has not yet rid itself of its colonial mindset, disrespecting the basic rights of people in its current colonies.
Even today, illegal persecution by the French police continues, aimed at intimidating the Corsican people to silence independence supporters. However, as stated on February 2 at a press conference by the leaders of the Nazione movement, no repression can stop the national struggle of the Corsican people or force them to submit.
The French government, implementing a policy of destroying the Corsican language spoken by over 150,000 people, seeking to make the Corsican people forget their national identity, has prohibited the use of the Corsican language during debates of parliament members in the local parliament.
This policy is a clear and violent violation of France's international obligations regarding universal human rights and the rights of national minorities. France denies the national identity of the peoples living on its territory, accepting only the concept of 'French', which is in itself chauvinism.
By canceling the right to use the local language in Corsica, France has violated the requirements of international documents to which it has acceded and the commitments it has undertaken. These documents include the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the most important document of the Great French Revolution of 1789, defining individual human rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Universal Declaration on Linguistic Rights, UNESCO's Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and others.
As the support group for the Corsican people, established in the Azerbaijani parliament, we:
- strongly condemn the illegal actions of French law enforcement agencies against Corsican independence supporters;
- urge the French authorities to respect fundamental human rights;
- urge the French government to guarantee the right of the Corsican people to freely assemble and the right to association.
- urge to immediately release all detainees and cease political persecution,” the statement says.
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