Separatism

France has difficulty formulating a foreign policy strategy towards conflicts and has supported separatism and the territorial integrity of states. This has led to France losing its ability to portray itself as an honest broker in conflicts.

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One of the most prominent figures against independence for the Spanish region of Catalonia staged a counter-protest on Oct. 20 after a week of separatist unrest and called for an end to the violence.

Catalonia’s secessionist parties have won enough votes to regain a slim majority in the regional parliament and give new momentum to their political struggle for independence from Spain.

After their failed independence bid, which saw leaders being detained or fleeing abroad, Catalan separatists head into a new election this month divided over the future of their region but united against what they say is "repression" from Madrid.

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont kept friends and foes guessing on Wednesday on whether he intends to unilaterally declare independence as the Spanish government prepares to impose direct rule to stop the region breaking away, Reuters reports.

Two hundred thousand people, some of them with candles in hand, demonstrated on Tuesday evening in Barcelona. The protest is against Monday's arrest of two activists in the struggle for independence of Catalonia, AFP reports. The data on the number people participating in the event is from the municipal police.

This map shows you just how big the separatist and autonomous movements are all over Europe and not just in Catalonia.

It has local interest too. The very first case it shows is that of Northern Epirus, the Southern part of Albania, refering apparently to the “Protocol of Corfu” signed in 1914, which provided a status of autonomy to the indigenous Greek minority.

Catalan separatists hold a mass rally on Sept.11 for independence that will kick off campaigning for a regional election billed as a de facto referendum on breaking away from Spain.

Romania does not recognise the "so-called treaty of alliance and integration" which has just been signed between Russia and the South Ossetia Georgian separatist region, the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) said on Wednesday.

Photo credit: (c) Liviu SOVA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The violence took place just two days before the sentencing of prominent Muslim Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti, who was on trial on charges of separatism