Attachments
Armenia-Azerbaijan: Fighting intensifies further amid near-complete blockade of Artsakh
Armed clashes along the Armenia-Artsakh1-Azerbaijan Line of Contact more than doubled in June compared to May. Overall levels of armed violence reached their highest point since the latest major spike in hostilities in the region in autumn 2022. ACLED records 126 armed clashes in June, compared with 82 and 87 in September and November last year. In addition to hotspots around Artsakh and along Armenia’s eastern border with Azerbaijan, a significant number of ceasefire violations occurred around the Armenian town of Yeraskh on the border with Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave. During fighting in June, at least four military fatalities were reported, all due to Azerbaijani drone strikes at Artsakh positions on 28 June.
Amid escalating tensions, Armenian forces shot at Azerbaijani border guards attempting to install an Azerbaijani flag in front of a Russian peacekeepers’ border checkpoint on 15 June. The Russian checkpoint is located on a bridge over the Hakari river, where Azerbaijan installed a checkpoint of its own in late April. The incident led to Azerbaijan completely closing the Lachin corridor linking Armenia and Artsakh, intensifying the humanitarian crisis in the latter.2 Azerbaijan subsequently allowed medical evacuations from Artsakh to Armenia and the movement of medical supplies to the enclave,3 after Russian peacekeepers airlifted a critically ill baby from Artsakh to Armenia.4 Despite the violence and inflammatory announcements, both sides claimed unspecified progress during United States-mediated peace talks on a draft agreement.5 Prior to the negotiations, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov dismissed Armenian demands that security guarantees be provided to ethnic Armenians remaining in Artsakh as part of any settlement.6 In addition, a senior Azerbaijani military officer threatened the use of force against Artsakh armed formations in response to “provocations or illegal actions.”7
The conflict over Artsakh has persisted since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Artsakh won a secession war against Azerbaijan in 1994, with the latter regaining parts of Artsakh and adjacent areas after another war in 2020.
France: Police shooting of teenager sparks nationwide riots
A video of a police officer fatally shooting a teenager of North African heritage on 27 June during a traffic check in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris, triggered a wave of riots in about 250 French cities and towns. While reminiscent of the unrest prompted by the death of two teenagers in a police chase in 2005, the rioting has extended beyond the poorer outskirts of French cities.8 It has been the worst outburst of street violence since ACLED coverage began in 2020, exceeding levels of violent demonstrations triggered by minimum retirement age reforms since the beginning of the year. The demonstrations quickly deteriorated, with some participants smashing windows, setting cars and buildings on fire, throwing fireworks at riot police, and barricading streets. The capital city of Paris and the surrounding area, as well as other major urban centers, including Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, and Strasbourg, were particularly affected. There were also multiple reports of shops looted. A youth died when he fell while attempting to break into a shop from its roof in Petit-Quevilly in northwestern France. Authorities struggled to re-impose public order despite deploying thousands of police officers to the streets at night9 and imposing curfews in dozens of cities and towns.10 About 700 police personnel were injured11 in clashes with rioters, over 3,000 of whom were detained.12
Mayor’s offices and municipal buildings, along with other public buildings such as schools and police stations, appeared to have been particularly targeted, with reports of at least 150 incidents. There were also reports of targeting mayors, including direct attacks and setting their vehicles on fire. In an incident that occurred overnight on 2 July in L’Haÿ-les-Roses, a suburb south of Paris, perpetrators rammed open and set alight the house of a mayor, whose wife and two children had to escape the flames while the mayor was guarding the mayor’s office.13 The woman and one of the children were injured as a result. The violence prompted rallies in support of local officials and calls for a “return to civil peace.”14 The riots appeared to be waning following the weekend of 30 June. The police officer who shot the teenager in Nanterre is being investigated for manslaughter.
*For more information on violence against officials in France and the European Union at large, see *ACLED’s special project on violence targeting local officials