BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 14. Anti-Azerbaijani rhetoric in the French press has reached a near-hysterical level as the COP29 climate conference draws closer, Trend reports.
As Jean-Michel Brun, a well-known French journalist and editor-in-chief of the Paris-based online newspaper La Gazette du Caucase, writes in his article, the vast majority of the global community supports Azerbaijan in hosting this significant event.
"COP29 will be held from November 11 to 22, 2024, in Baku. The UK backed this choice, Germany praised Azerbaijan’s organizational capabilities, and OSCE Secretary-General Helga Schmid assured that COP29 in Azerbaijan would be one of the year’s most significant events. The Non-Aligned Movement congratulated Azerbaijan for proposing a ceasefire during the summit, and the UN Secretary-General expressed a desire to attend. Even Armenia chose not to host the conference, favoring Baku instead. It seemed like everyone was happy with this decision - except France, which has spearheaded a movement against COP29, essentially standing alone aside from the Armenian diaspora and a few American lobby groups," the article reads.
According to Brun, France’s leading media outlets - already criticized by the French public for bias and lack of trust - are making every effort to discredit the organization of COP29 in Baku.
"France is quick to notice the speck in Baku’s eye while ignoring the log in its own. Official French media express disbelief over how Azerbaijan can claim to care about climate issues while being an oil-producing country. However, one could argue that a producing country recognizing the need for a transition to sustainable development is a positive step. Since this argument falls flat, these same media - now owned by a handful of oligarchs with right-wing and openly Islamophobic ties - attempt to exploit the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, distorting facts and labeling Azerbaijan's liberation of its territories, which were occupied for 30 years, as aggression," he notes.
Brun also points out that amid these developments, France has intensified its criticism of Baku, even advising its citizens to avoid traveling to Azerbaijan due to the risk of "arbitrary detentions". This has only heightened tensions surrounding the upcoming conference, even though most international players support holding COP29 in Baku.
"A network has formed within several pro-Macron media outlets to spread slander against Azerbaijan. However, there’s good news: only the older generation continues to follow this ‘official’ press. French youth, the generation of the future, no longer reads newspapers or watches TV; they prefer to get their information from independent sources, social media, and the internet. On these platforms, high-caliber journalists and scholars operate free from lobbyist influence," Brun concludes.