"Azerbaijan is not a fantasy, it is a reality," replied French Interior and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin, when asked about a possible involvement of China, Russia or Azerbaijan in instigating the wave of violence.

Darmanin regretted in an interview on public television France 2 that "some of the pro-independence Caledonian leaders have made an agreement with Azerbaijan".

New Caledonia has been shaken since Monday by violent riots that have left four dead and hundreds injured, following a constitutional reform approved by the French National Assembly.

The constitutional amendment extends the electorate in the archipelago to all New Caledonians and residents for at least 10 years.

The reform has angered the pro-independence movement, whose leaders believe that the enlargement of the electorate could "further marginalize the indigenous Kanak people", who make up 41% of the population.

In an attempt to control the violence, Paris on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in the archipelago colonized in the 19th century and located between Australia and New Zealand, in the Melanesia sub-region of the South Pacific.

France has sent military personnel and banned the social network TikTok, whose parent company is Chinese and which is widely used by the organizers of the protests, according to the French news agency AFP.

"It is indisputable" that Azerbaijan is involved, Darmanin insisted on France 2, also quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE.

The minister said that the Azeri regime "is a dictatorship that massacres" part of the population and that no country can generate violence in New Caledonia, since "France is sovereign in its territory".

In response, the Baku government condemned "the insulting statements by the French side against Azerbaijan" through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement quoted by the official agency Azertac.

"We demand that the smear campaign against our country with unacceptable accusations, such as the mass murder of Armenians, be stopped," ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizade said in the statement.

"It would be more appropriate for the French Interior Minister to recall the history of the brutal murder of millions of innocent people, committing crimes against humanity against indigenous peoples as part of his country's colonial policy for many years," he added.

Azerbaijan, which accuses Paris of supporting Armenia, had already invited the independentists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku in July 2023.

This conference gave rise to the "Baku Initiative Group to support "the French liberation and anti-colonial movements".

In a statement published in French on Tuesday by Azertac, the group condemned "the detention of the Kanaks and the acts of violence by the French authorities against civilians in New Caledonia".

Relations between Paris and Baku have deteriorated since the Azeri military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh in late September 2023, which France condemned.

In November, Paris accused parties linked to Azerbaijan of developing a disinformation campaign to damage France's reputation in hosting the 2024 Olympic Games. Baku rejected the accusations.

Suspicions in France about Azerbaijan's influence have increased since the signing in April of a memorandum of cooperation between the Congress of New Caledonia and the National Assembly of Azerbaijan.

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