BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28. The ONESXM Association, an independence movement in the French- and Dutch-administered island of Saint Martin, has expressed support for Azerbaijan and the Baku Initiative Group (BIG), while criticizing France's colonial policy.
According to the Baku Initiative Group, the association firmly rejected allegations by three members of the French National Assembly targeting Azerbaijan's and the Baku Initiative Group's support for decolonization efforts. It also criticized the lawmakers' characterization of President Ilham Aliyev's remarks on French-administered territories as interference in France's internal affairs.
The association argued that colonialism, decolonization and the right of peoples to self-determination are matters of international law rather than France's domestic affairs. "Decolonization is not France's internal affair. It is an unfinished international responsibility," the statement said.
ONESXM stressed that the principles of self-determination are enshrined in Article 1 of the UN Charter and further reinforced by UN General Assembly Resolution 1514, the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
The organization described the work of the Baku Initiative Group in giving a voice to peoples living under colonial administration as legitimate and consistent with international law. It said that portraying international support for decolonization as foreign interference fails to address the concerns raised by colonized peoples seeking to determine their own political future.
Recalling that New Caledonia and French Polynesia remain on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, ONESXM said their future cannot be treated as an issue on which only France has a legitimate voice. It also argued that formal integration into the French state does not, by itself, signify the end of colonialism or guarantee equal political, economic and social rights.
The association renewed its call for the immediate organization of an official referendum in Saint Martin, allowing residents to vote "yes" or "no" on independence.
According to the Baku Initiative Group, the statement demonstrates that international support for decolonization efforts continues to grow and highlights the organization's role as a platform for advancing dialogue on self-determination.
