koti

I think I know now where my confusion came from. In English, provocation is the act of provoking (at least a couple of dictionaries from the top of google say so) wheres in my language not quite. "Provocation" has a more clear political meaning in Polish to a point. Its defined as a sneeky act done by an agent to do damage etc. Both words "Provocation" and "Prowokacja" are translated to each other directly but the carry a little bit different meaning. 

Same in French; "une provocation" has the sneaky political meaning as well as the more general meaning.

In any case , in English the sneaky political  meaning of "a provocation" is quite an important one and certainly is clear when used in context.

I seem to remember from my time in France when Polish people would manage to escape from the Soviet bloc that  there was a connection between the Poles and the French that was perhaps partially reflected in the language)

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2007/08/23/quebec_police_admit_agents_posed_as_protesters.html

Seems a propos to this little thread (both terms are used ,but not in the "strong" sense of causing  actions to take place (allegedly).In fact they claim to have refrained from joining in the ongoing action and so had their  cover blown.