Бретань тәуелсіздігі үшін күрес: Қарулы ұйымдар мен саяси қозғалыстар тарихы

The Breton Revolutionary Army (, ARB) is an illegal armed organization that is part of the Breton nationalism movement in the Brittany region of France.

Until the end of the 15th century, Brittany had managed to remain independent of its French and English neighbours. In December 1491, however, after two consecutive civil wars opposing the French Crown to an alliance of French Princes (among them Brittany) and foreign powers, the latter were defeated and the young Breton duchess, Anne, was married to the young King Charles VIII, thereby tying Brittany to France. The 1974 bombing in Roc Tredudon marks the first of approximately 200 terrorist acts on foreign soil, both inside and outside Brittany. The latter attack, which occurred on 18 June 1999, was a result of the refusal, two days before, by the then French President Jacques Chirac to ratify the European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages. This incident served to confirm suspicions about the nature of the relationship between the ETA and the Breton separatists. As the subsequent investigation revealed, ARB members had been hosting Basque separatists in Brittany prior to the heist. Spanish authorities even suspect that some ETA members may at times come to Brittany temporarily in search of a safe haven. The explosion did not ignite a fire but the building itself sustained severe damage and its roof was blown off. Gael Roblin, the main spokesman of Emgann, was also arrested for his theoretical justification of previous ARB bombings.

Emgann is believed to provide political support to the ARB. Its affiliation with the latter has been repeatedly denied over the years by Emgann, which considers itself a pacifist group, although it openly supports the ARB's violent methods and goals. It nonetheless publishes the ARB's messages and articles and substantial evidence has been produced by French authorities that confirms the suspected intimate and complicit relationship between the two groups. Hence, several Emgann members were apprehended in connection with several attacks attributed to the ARB. Created in 1982, Emgann defines itself as part of the independent Breton leftist wing. Pro independence and anti capitalist, Emgann advocates for no compromise or contact with the French government and political parties. Its activism came in the wake of the election of François Mitterrand to the French Presidency. In 1981, the newly elected state leader had pardoned members of the FLB who had just been convicted and imprisoned by the State Security Court, in France. Their release provoked the dismantlement of the FLB as many of its newly released members gave up their former violent activism and instead chose to retire or join the Breton Democratic Union (UDB), an autonomist Breton political movement opposed to violence. Emgrann, therefore, picked up the FLB's mantle and sought to pursue the fight.

The characteristics of Emgann and the ARB's recruitment pool serve to explain the rather lack of preparedness of its attacks over the years. While in the 70s many recruits came from universities and parts of the Breton elite, today most if not all are mainly drawn from either urban and unemployed youth, those living on welfare and those on limited and short term employment. This non specialized recruitment illustrates, according to French authorities, the amateur nature of the often botched bombings of the ARB. On 25 November 1999 police managed to retrieve two and a half kilograms of dynamite in Saint Herblain because the timer had malfunctioned and was out of order. On 28 November that year, in Rennes, police defused a bomb with a nearby sign indicating the presence of an ARB explosive device. However, the more successful attacks of the ARB, such as the 1998 bombing of Belfort City Hall and the Plévin attack seem to counter that claim. Police theorize that this divergence in preparedness and specialization may be explained by the association, at times, of the ARB and their Basque counterparts, the ETA.

Local financial support for the ARB is geared toward the families of its incarcerated members. This financial support is provided by Skoazell Vreizh ("Breton assistance"), an original group headed by Pierre Locquet, who has been its president for over 20 years. A former FLB member, Locquet was convicted for an attack in the 1970s. Locquet considers his organisation essential in helping anyone who commits an act that defies French authority. Upon capture, the perpetrator's family is contacted by Skoazell Vreizh to make arrangements in order to pay their legal fees. In case of incarceration, the organisation takes it upon itself to support the prisoner's family financially until his release. Until the 1990s, Skoazell Vreizh had mainly used its financial support to assist minor delinquents « with a good cause » who engaged in such activities as repainting street signs in Breton, refusing to pay the national television tax to protest the lack of a Breton channel, or paying their taxes by writing checks in Breton. The 1990s, however proved to be more costly for Skoazell Vreizh as the seriousness of the ARB's attacks increased, part of which can be blamed on the group's increased association with better trained and more radical groups such as the ETA, as is evidenced by the Plévin theft. Nonetheless, Skoazell Vreizh remains a crucial asset and is well organized. Part of its funds emanate from minor donations collected at concerts and other public festivities or personal donations withdrawn from a donor's bank account. The largest contributions, however, come directly from its political support, namely from the UDB itself and the Breton Cultural Institute which is a branch of the Breton Regional Counsel.

Until the McDonald's attack in 2000, the ARB and Emgann had enjoyed widespread support throughout Brittany. While this support has largely dwindled over the years, as evidenced by the various nationalist protests organized over the years by Emgrann and which have managed to draw less than two hundred people, a number in sharp contrast with the thousands of supporters the FLB used to attract in the 1970s. Nonetheless, the ARB managed to maintain, at the very least, a form of toleration from the wider population who recognize the merit in their fight. Most of all the nonviolent nature of the group (refusing to spill blood to achieve their goals), until 2000, served to maintain that support as the Breton people, including the group's most ardent supporters, consider non lethal violence a more respectable form of protest than the opposite. The death of Laurence Turbec had a tremendously negative impact on the group's popularity. Both Breton leftist and right wing groups condemned the attack. The UDB clamored for the perpetrators to turn themselves in. Similarly, the POBL (center right party) worried this might signal an ideological drift from the ARB toward a more violent type of radicalism, such as that of their ETA counterparts. Emgann's spokesman, Gael Roblin, as well, called the act itself unacceptable and unjustifiable. Former ARB members similarly denounced the attack and said the ARB should justify itself publicly. Pierre Locquet was also said to be sickened by the attack, criticized the amateur nature of ARB members, pointing out that in the 1970s, ARB members would always stay nearby so as to ensure that the explosive would work as intended and that no casualties would be sustained.