Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: AFP
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8:32 p.m., December 28, 2023
2024 is fast approaching and now is the time to take a look in the rearview mirror. Europe 1 has selected ten major events which have shaped the contours of international news in 2023. A retrospective which will take us to the Middle East, Africa, but also to Argentina and to the front of the war in Ukraine.
Türkiye – Syria – Morocco: devastating earthquakes
On February 6, more than 50,000 people paid with their lives for the upheavals of the Earth in Turkey and Syria. António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, called it “one of the greatest natural disasters of our time” while the World Bank estimated the amount of damage at $34 billion. According to the Turkish authorities, more than 2 million people have had to seek refuge outside devastated cities and provinces.
A few months later, it was Morocco which suffered from untimely movements of the earth’s crust. On the night of September 8 to 9, a magnitude 7 earthquake struck the surroundings of Marrakech, causing the death of nearly 3,000 people and the destruction of several villages in the High Atlas. The country was nevertheless able to count on an impressive wave of solidarity, emanating not only from the locals, but also from the diaspora.
May 6: the coronation of Charles III
An event like the country had not experienced for 70 years. On May 6, Charles III officially became the new king of England, eight months after the death of his mother, Elizabeth II. A ceremony regulated to the millimeter, attended by many distinguished guests, including the French President, Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by his wife. If most British people welcomed the event with enthusiasm, others denounced this flashy coronation, sometimes considered out of step with the economic and inflationary crisis that the kingdom is going through.
May 29: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, narrowly re-elected as head of Turkey
The undisputed leader of Turkey will have wavered as he rarely does in the run-up to the presidential election. But for the third time, it was Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who won on May 29 with 52% of the votes, thus ahead of his rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who had long been in the lead in the polls and who took him as far as an unprecedented second round. The blow is all the harder for the opposition as Erdoğan was the subject of numerous criticism, in particular for his response considered too soft after the earthquake which devastated the Turkish-Syrian border, but also for his economic record and his difficulties in stemming the terrorist threat in the country.
June 8: the Ukrainian counter-offensive
On June 8, Ukraine launched a military operation intended to recover territories annexed by Russia during Moscow’s invasion of the country on February 24, 2022. A counter-offensive which took time to deploy and whose The results are, for the moment, far from Kiev’s expectations. On the front, territorial gains are marginal, Russian defense lines hold firm and international support for the Ukrainian war effort is increasingly contested, particularly in the United States where several Republican elected officials are opposed to the release of new funds.
June 23: the five passengers of the Titan submarine die in an implosion
They had gone to explore the wreck of the Titanic aboard a submarine and never returned. On June 23, the five passengers of the “Titan”, including the French specialist of the Titanic, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, were declared dead by the American coast guard after the implosion of the device which did not support pressure at a depth of nearly 4,000 meters. The investigation revealed that the submarine had several weaknesses which could call into question its owner, the company OceanGate.
July 26: the coup d’état in Niger
In the middle of summer, Niger joined Mali and Burkina Faso among the Sahel countries led by a military junta. After the overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum, General Abdourahamane Tiani proclaimed himself head of state. A putsch accompanied by demonstrations with anti-French overtones aimed at denouncing the military presence of the former colonial power in the country. A climate of extreme tension which forced the Quai d’Orsay to develop an evacuation operation which allowed 577 French nationals to return to France. The French ambassador Sylvain Itté also returned to France on September 27.
Photo credit: AFP
August 23: Yevgeny Prigozhin dies in a plane crash
In the Tver region, located northwest of Moscow in Russia, a private jet crashed on August 23, killing all ten people it was carrying. Among them was a certain Yevgeny Prigojine, boss of the Wagner militia, who had, two months earlier, attempted a rebellion against Russian power, before making an about-face. Very quickly, suspicions of a maneuver orchestrated by the Kremlin arose, which Vladimir Putin continues to deny outright.
September 19: Azerbaijan leads a lightning offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh
It is a region that Armenia and Azerbaijan have been hotly contesting for years. Last September, Baku led a lightning offensive on the enclave where 120,000 Armenians reside, leading to the evacuation of 10,000 people. An “anti-terrorist operation” against the Armenian separatists, according to the terms used by the Azeri army, which ended the next day with the conclusion of a ceasefire, subject to “the dissolution and complete disarmament” of the enclave forces. Conditions imposed by Baku.
October 7: the Middle East descends into horror
On the morning of Saturday October 7, terrorists from Hamas, the Islamist movement in power in the Gaza Strip, burst into Israeli territory to commit a series of massacres on the civilian population. Scenes of incredible barbarity which cost the lives of more than 1,100 people, including 41 French people. Not counting the 129 people, still held hostage in the Palestinian enclave, according to the Israeli authorities. Attacks which also provoked a large-scale response from the Israeli army in Gaza.
November 19: election of Javier Milei in Argentina
Sometimes nicknamed the “Trump of the Pampas”, the ultraliberal Javier Milei (53) was elected head of Argentina on Sunday November 19. Fiercely anti-system and supporter of the far-right, he is often compared to former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and promises shock therapy for his country, where inflation stands at 140%.
Photo credit: Emiliano LASALVIA / AFP