The Baku Initiative Group (BIG) has strongly condemned a preliminary legislative initiative adopted by the Corsican Assembly regarding the former illegal regime in Karabakh and Armenian citizens facing criminal prosecution in Azerbaijan.

Describing the move as unilateral, provocative, and politically motivated, the group stated that the initiative violates fundamental principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and non-interference in internal affairs, while simply echoing geopolitical narratives advanced by Paris.

The group emphasized that lawmakers supporting the initiative cannot be considered as expressing the independent political will of the Corsican people. By acting as conduits for French foreign policy, they have effectively become political tools—or puppets—of Paris rather than representatives defending Corsica's national interests, language, culture, and identity.

Highlighting what it called the hypocrisy of this stance, the Baku Initiative Group noted that the same political circles championing self-determination thousands of kilometers away refuse to secure basic linguistic and political rights for the Corsican people at home.

Under Article 2 of the French Constitution, French is the sole official language of the republic. French judicial authorities have invalidated provisions aimed at recognizing Corsican as a working language alongside French in the Corsican Assembly and Executive. In June 2025, the French Council of State declined to hear an appeal filed by Corsican authorities against those decisions.

Furthermore, although France signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 1999, it has failed to ratify it to date, even as the Council of Europe explicitly recognizes Corsican as a historical regional language under the charter.

The Baku Initiative Group stressed that before passing resolutions concerning the South Caucasus, these representatives ought to answer several questions:

Why do they remain subordinate to a state that refuses equal institutional status to the Corsican language?

Why do they fail to show the same resolve against Paris's centralizing policies of deliberate assimilation?

Why do they employ decolonization rhetoric abroad while ignoring the ongoing impact of French dominance over Corsica's identity, education, language, and political decision-making?

The group reiterated that it draws a clear distinction between the Corsican people and individuals who serve the French government's interests, choosing political submission to Paris over defending Corsica's national interests.

The people of Corsica deserve representatives who consistently safeguard the Corsican language, preserve Corsican culture, and defend the right to self-determination, rather than officials operating as instruments of French foreign policy, the statement added.

The Baku Initiative Group urged the Corsican Assembly to focus primarily on the unresolved rights of the Corsican people.

The Assembly should demand that France:

Grant full institutional recognition to the Corsican language;

Guarantee its unhindered use in education, administration, and public life;

Ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages;

Protect the national identity and culture of the Corsican people;

Demonstrate genuine respect for the political will and right to self-determination of the Corsican people.

The Baku Initiative Group called on the Corsican Assembly to safeguard its political and institutional independence and refuse to serve as a tool for the French state's national agenda. As the representative body of the Corsican people, the Assembly must defend their linguistic, cultural, and political rights rather than allow itself to be used to legitimize policies that erode Corsica's identity and aspirations, the group concluded.