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Switching Antagonist Roles: Conflicting Identities and Majority/Minority Reactions. a Case Study on the Region of Szeklerland – Transylvania

Author(s): Marius Lazăr / Language(s): English

This paper is the result of a research study undertaken within the frame of the NEXUS international team project on “How To Think About the Balkans: Culture, Region, Identities”, one of the research branches of the Blue Bird policy project. The project was hosted by the Centre for Advanced Study in Sofi a and supported by the Volkswagen Foundation, the European Cultural Foundation and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. The interpretations included here draw upon interviews and data surveys carried out by the author in association with Irina Curie, Anca Covrig, Lorand Cziprian, Camil Postelnicu, Cristina Ra{ and Stefania Toma, sociologists and research assistants from Babe§-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, members of the scientifi c team of the Research Center for Interethnic Relations (CCRIT). For this presentation the author has used the results of the sociological survey of (CCRIT) carried out between June 25-July 5, 2000 in the counties of Szeklerland (Szekelyfold in Hungarian, Secuime in Romanian), as part of a project entitled “The Deconstruction and Reconstruction of an Image: the Population of Covasna and Harghita Counties”, fi nanced jointly by the Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center and the Open Society Foundation”. Data refer also to the Ethnobarometer. Interethnic Relations in Romania, May-June 2000, research fi nanced by the United States Agency for International Development. A shorter, earlier version of this study focused on identity perceptions and interethnic relations in Szekerland. Elements for a “deconstruction” and a “reconstruction”*, in Lucian Nastatsa, Levente Salat (ed.), Interethnic Relations in Post-Communist Romania, Cluj-Napoca, Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center, 2000.

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Bilateral Agreements in Central and Eastern Europe: A New Inter-State Framework for Minority Protection?

Author(s): Kinga Gál / Language(s): English

The practice of bilateral agreements on good neighbourly relations was ‘reinvented’ by Germany after 1991 to guarantee the frontiers resulting from World War II and to protect the minorities of German origin in Central and Eastern Europe. A similar policy was pursued by Hungary with five of ist neighbours to deal with the problems of the Hungarian minorities. Parallel to this trend, the European Union has also promoted a policy aimed at guaranteeing stability in Central and Eastern Europe through bilateral agreements on good neighbourliness. The bilateral treaties follow each other in time, structure and content. They incorporate soft law provisions, especially with regard to their minority regulations, reflecting the strong influence of the political factor. They do not mention collective rights and fail to provide the national minorities concerned with any form of self-government. Furthermore, they were often negotiated in the absence of the minority communities they were designed to protect. As these treaties are politically highly motivated, the political aspects of the implementation mechanisms have received primacy over the legal possibilities. The treaties, and hence indirectly the provisions of international documents enshrined in them, have the same status as national legislation and could therefore be claimed before national courts. However, the joint intergovernmental committees monitoring implementation have the potential to become the most effective implementation mechanism. In conclusion, although these treaties have not significantly changed the existing practice of minority protection so far, their importance should not be diminished because they contribute to the construction of a new inter-state framework for minority protection.

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THE LAUSANNE PRINCIPLE. Multiethnicity, Territory and the Future of Kosovo’s Serbs

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Five years into the international administration of Kosovo, two violent days in March 2004 have sorely tested the international commitment to a multiethnic Kosovo. Directed against Kosovo’s minorities and against the international mission itself, the violence has left many wondering whether UNMIK has the capacity to achieve its objectives in the face of open resistance.This is a dangerous moment for international policy in the region. The urgent priority for the Kosovo mission and the incoming SRSG is to reaffirm the international commitment to multiethnic society, at both the diplomatic and the practical level.This paper argues that the policies needed in response to the March riots must be based on the practical needs of Serbs living in Kosovo today. The paper finds that the current reality of Kosovo Serbs differs from the common perception in important ways. There are still nearly 130,000 Serbs living in Kosovo today, representing two-thirds of the pre-war Serb population. Of these, two-thirds (75,000) are living south of the River Ibar in Albanian-majority areas. Almost all of the urban Serbs have left, with North Mitrovica now the last remaining urban outpost. However, most of the rural Serbs have never left their homes. The reality of Kosovo Serbs today is small communities of subsistence farmers scattered widely across Kosovo.

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MITROVICA: KOSOVO’S LITMUS TEST

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Mitrovica is Kosovo’s litmus test. It is here that the Guiding Principles set down by the Contact Group – no partition, decentralisation, return and a multiethnic Kosovo – will face their toughest test. It is in Mitrovica that the Kosovo leadership must prove that its commitment to a multiethnic society is more than rhetorical. On 4 May 2006, Mitrovica and municipal boundaries will be on the agenda of the status talks in Vienna. In recent weeks, there has been renewed and often heated debate over competing proposals for this divided town. ESI organised a special conference on Mitrovica with Wilton Park in Vienna on 30 March, where we outlined our proposals for a lasting solution for the town.

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THE GERMAN TURKEY DEBATE UNDER THE GRAND COALITION. State of the Debate – October 2006

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Before 1998, the coalition of CDU/CSU and FDP under Chancellor Helmut Kohl had opposed Turkey’s EU aspirations. In 2004 Angela Merkel, still lobbied for her party’s preference of a privileged partnership for Turkey. Since autumn 2005 Germany has been governed by a Grand Coalition of Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel. There were some expectations that the departure of the SPD/Green coalition under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer would yet again change German policy on Turkey. So far, however, this has not happened.

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A REFERENDUM ON THE UNKNOWN TURK? Anatomy of an Austrian debate

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Around the world, the quality press has been reporting for weeks on the run-up to theAustrian referendum on Turkish EU accession. In London, The Guardian writes: “In 1683, Turkey was the invader. In 2015, Austria still sees it that way.” A commentator in The Financial Times notes: “For many Austrians it is as though the Janissaries were even now aiming their cannon at the gates of Vienna.” The Austrian press (“Siege Mentality”, “The Return of the Turks”, “Bulwark Austria”) and the Turkish media (“The Walls of Vienna”, “Will Vienna fall?”) are awash with military metaphors. || There has never been any doubt about the outcome of the referendum. For more than a decade, Eurobarometer polls have recorded no more than 10 percent support among Austrians for Turkish accession. With the exception of the Green party, all political parties represented in parliament have campaigned for a ‘no’ vote. It is the inevitability of the result which fascinates some (and shocks others). Vienna 2015 will replace Vienna 1683 as a global metaphor for the eternal confrontation between Christian and Muslim Europe.

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TURKISH TOURISTS AND EUROPEAN JUSTICE. The Demirkan ruling and how Turkey can obtain visa-free travel

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

On 24 September 2013 many eyes across the EU and Turkey turned to Luxembourg. There, at just after nine-thirty in the morning, the Court of Justice of the European Union (or European Court of Justice, ECJ) delivered a judgement in one of its most important cases this year.1 The issue at stake was visa-free access to EU countries for Turkish citizens. || At the centre of the court case was Leyla Ecem Demirkan, a 20-year old Turkish woman from the city of Mersin, now a student in Izmir. When Leyla was a teenager, her mother married a German, Jorg Huber. In October 2007, Leyla wanted to visit her stepfather and applied at the German consulate in Ankara for a visa.2 Her request was denied. She went to court, arguing that Germany’s visa requirement for Turkish citizens was illegal to start with, as it conflicted with the rights accorded to Turkish citizens by the 1963 Turkey-EU Association Agreement.

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TEACHING WAR. How Croatian schoolbooks changed and why it matters. – Textbook series – part one

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

This report describes how the clash between different approaches to history education has played out in Croatian history textbooks. Until 2000, there was only one nationalist textbook in use, presenting a one-sided image of Croatia’s war history, both in the Second World War and in the conflicts that followed the dissolution of Yugoslavia. By 2013, when Croatia acceded to the EU, teachers could choose between four textbooks, which offered a much more nuanced picture. This reflected wider changes in how Croats viewed themselves, how they defined citizenship and how they saw their relationship with their neighbours and their Orthodox Serb minority.

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THE HYPNOTIST. Aleksandar Vucic, John Bolton and the return of the past

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

It is remarkable how little change there has been in the key personnel in Serbian politics since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. It is not surprising, therefore, that the old nationalist idea of redrawing borders on the basis of ethnicity has continued to be so prominent. What is surprising is the recent success that Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic has had in repackaging this old idea as progressive, non-conventional, out-of-the-box thinking. Why not, the siren song goes (again), adjust some borders along ethnic lines, as long as the process is negotiated peacefully and leads to reconciliation? || In addition, to remain credible in Pristina, European countries should take two long overdue steps: to lift the visa requirement for Kosovo citizens, as the European Commission and the European Parliament have recommended; and to support Kosovo in applying and joining the Council of Europe, with protection of minorities in Kosovo a key requirement of post-accession monitoring. || The EU also needs to send a strong signal to countries and leaders who reach out to their neighbours and minorities and resolve difficult issues in a true spirit of reconciliation. The strongest signal would be to begin accession talks with North Macedonia without delay in summer 2019.

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BETON - Kulturno propagandni komplet br. 191, god. XIII, Beograd, utorak, 16. januar 2018.

Author(s): Arben Idrizi,Saša Ćirić,Đorđe Krajišnik,Predrag Lucić / Language(s): Serbian

MIXER, Arben Idrizi: Popa; antiCEMENT Saša Ćirić: Jezik ljubavi i jezik usamljenosti; CEMENT, Đorđe Krajišnik: Šega, šala, cigla; PREDRAG LUCIĆ, lirika utoke / 19. 11. 2014: Malvina

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BETON - Kulturno propagandni komplet br. 158, god. X, Beograd, utorak, 21. april 2015.

Author(s): Saša Ćirić,Đorđe Aćimović,Sergej Stanković,Radivoj Šajtinac,Armanda Hisa / Language(s): Serbian

MIXER, Armanda Hisa: Albansko-srpski brakovi; antiCEMENT, Saša Ćirić: Otadžbina zveri i čekanje čuda; VREME SMRTI I RAZONODE, Đorđe Aćimović: Kada sam ostao bolestan..., Sergej Stanković: Čistač klozeta, Radivoj Šajtinac: Prijava za festival horova; BLOK BR. V, Diskoteka 3D: Srećan rođendan, gospodine Predsedniče

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№11 The Brussels Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. Achievements and Challenges

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

This report describes the dialogue process in detail; the achieved agreements, their implementation or lack of thereof, and the impact of these agreements. The report treats both technical and political agreements as part of a single process eased by the EU’s involvement. Since the government and other institutions do not have complete information regarding the entire dialogue, this report will serve to create a better institutional memory system for the Government. These descriptions are also significant for the new dialogue phase with Serbia.

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DPC POLICY NOTE 04: Legal Misunderstandings, False normative Hopes and the Ignorance of Political Reality. A Commentary on the recent ESI Report “Lost in the Bosnian Labyrinth”

Author(s): Soeren Keil / Language(s): English

The European Stability Initiative recently published a troubling report on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) called “Lost in the Bosnian Labyrinth - Why the Sejdić-Finci case should not block an EU application.”1 ESI argues that “non-implementation of the Sejdić-Finci decision cannot justify blocking Bosnia and Herzegovina’s application for EU membership,” noting that the reforms the EU expects from Bosnia have not been required of other EU applicants, much less its own member states.2 ESI argues that a ground-breaking legal ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)3 should not impede Bosnia’s integration into the EU, but instead the EU should quickly give BiH candidate status and expect the constitutional revisions demanded by the ECHR to take place while BiH negotiates with the EU about membership. The paper justifies this with the claim that other countries (including EU member states) include de facto discriminatory provisions in their constitutions and are not sanctioned by the EU or the Council of Europe. // As will be shown in this text, that argument is not only highly flawed, but also demonstrates a troublingly lack of understanding of the fundamentals of BiH politics, as well as constitutional power-sharing arrangements in the member states of the EU. As such, the paper appears to be an effort to provide an ideological framework for the EU to move beyond its continuing failures in BiH that have enabled local politicians to undo many of the highly-touted reforms put in place prior to 2006, when the EU assumed policy leadership. If Brussels uses the ESI paper as ideological justification for dropping conditionality, it would enable the Brussels bureaucracy to move ahead with its “one size fits all” cookie-cutter enlargement policy and pretend that “progress” is occurring, when at best a standstill can be observed, and at worst, previous achievements are slowly being reversed by local party elites.

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Ali postoji li strategija? Definiranje transatlantskog konsenzusa za katalizaciju napretka u BiH

Author(s): Kurt Bassuener,Valery Perry,Toby Vogel,Bodo Weber / Language(s): Bosnian

This policy note dispels with the facile and simplistic myth that the only way for the international community to engage in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is through either imposed solutions, or through an ownership policy of reliance on local elites - the current default setting. What the situation calls for is employing the coercive advantage of a transatlantic consensus to create an environment in which focused engagement by citizens to define a vision for a new social contract can be articulated. This top-down, bottom-up dynamic can be described as a “pressure sandwich” aimed at squeezing an elite that has no incentive to change the status quo.

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Issue Paper on EU policy toward the Western Balkans – Regional Perspective: Case studies – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo

Author(s): Eldar Sarajlić,Vladimir Pavićević,Vedran Horvat,Venera Hajrullahu / Language(s): English

There is no doubt that the states of the Western Balkans belong to the European Union. However, their road to the EU is by no means an easy one. The entire Western Balkan region is not only encumbered by the maladies related to its communist past, but also by the problems the region has more recently experienced due to the horrors of war. Many of the ethnic tensions have not yet cooled down. The EU is more sceptical of further enlargement now than it was prior to the large-scale enlargements that brought in the states of Central and Eastern Europe in 2004 and 2007. The current EU-27 finds consensus more difficult to reach among states that are more different politically, economically and culturally than ever before. The EU, therefore, is not hastening the next wave of enlargement. It would be a big mistake, however, for the EU to close its doors to the states of the Western Balkans. The promise of EU accession is the most reliable driver of reform and stabilization for these potential new members. One of the foreign policy priorities of the Czech EU presidency was indeed continuing accession talks with the Western Balkan states. // In this publication we offer you an overview of the situation from the perspective of experts from four Western Balkan countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia. You are about to read a text which is in many ways significantly critical both towards domestic conditions in these countries and towards EU policy on the Western Balkan region, thanks to which you will have the opportunity to probe deeper into the problems of this region, which decidedly should not remain in the background of our interest.

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EAP Think Bridge - № 2020-30 - Presidential Elections in Moldova

Author(s): Artem Fylypenko,Richard Giragosian,Vadim Mojeiko,Lasha Tughushi,Sorin Șclearuc,Sergiy Gerasymchuk / Language(s): English

November did not bring the expected calm to the countries of the region, although several important steps were taken towards it. In Moldova, the euphoria over Maia Sandu’s sensational victory in the presidential race has been replaced by exaggerated demands from voters and an unreasonable expectation of quick results from her work. What changes are coming to the country and the region? In Georgia, the opposition does not recognize the election results and refuses to enter the parliament. The country’s legislature risks remaining oneparty with only 90 out of 150 seats filled if the boycott of opposition parties continues. The 44-day war ended in Nagorno-Karabakh. However, the peace agreement, signed at the Kremlin’s proposal, sparked protests in both Azerbaijan and Armenia. In Yerevan, the agreement is called treason and calls for the resignation of the prime minister are loud. Meanwhile, in Baku the opposition is concerned about the deployment of Russian peacekeepers to Karabakh. Protests against the regime of Lukashenko continue in Belarus, as do the use of force by the authorities and arrests of protesters. The most important developments of November in the Eastern Partnership analyzed in our digest. /// CONTENT: Analytica: Presidential Elections in Moldova: Interim Success of Maia Sandu // Azerbaijan: War Ended in a Victory // Crisis in Post-War Armenia // Belarus: Lukashenko Сalls on “Taking No Prisoners” and Closes Borders with the EU // Georgian Parliament with No Opposition // Moldova: New President – New Hopes // Three November Challenges for Ukraine: “COVID”, Anti-Corruption and Financial Ones

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EAP Think Bridge - № 2020-19 - June of High Level and Low Content

Author(s): Sergiy Gerasymchuk,Laura Zghibarta,Lasha Tughushi,Vadim Mojeiko,Richard Giragosian,Hennadiy Maksak / Language(s): English

Just as last year, they did not dare to call the meeting of the Eastern Partnership heads of states a summit. The main political event was yet again postponed – until 2021. No common statements and declarations have followed since the June online conferences. Does this mean that the European Union and partner states cannot agree on a future framework for cooperation? Or is the interest in the policy fading from both sides? Hennady Maksak searched for answers. In the meantime, neither the quarantine nor the summer season slowed down the political life in the region. Passions run high around the upcoming elections in Belarus and Moldova. And in Georgia, the authorities and the opposition finally agreed on the rules of the parliamentary election. The Armenian anti-corruption campaign got to the oligarch and opposition member of the parliament. Azerbaijan is again dissatisfied with the brutality of the police, this time both domestic and Russian. And in Ukraine, the presidential party in parliament failed to support the action plan of its own government. Against this backdrop, the countries of the region continue to combat the coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences. The highlights of the Eastern Partnership life in June are in our traditional overviews of the month. //// CONTENT: Analytica: June of High Level and Low Content // Azerbaijan Condemns Police Actions, both Russian and Domestic. // Armenia’s Political Drama // Belarus: Wave of Repression at the Start of the Election Campaign // Georgia: New System Elections to Come // Year 1 or Year 0 for Moldovan Politics? // Ukraine: Economic Recession, Threats to Democracy and Dynamic Growth in Relations with Neighbors // Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum News

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Migraţia şi problemele ei: perspectiva transnaţională ca o nouă modalitate de analiză a etnicităţii şi schimbării sociale în România

Author(s): Remus Gabriel Anghel / Language(s): Romanian

The transnational perspective has been asserted in recent years especially in the study of international migration. The current dynamics of globalization and international migration call for new theoretical and methodological perspectives to analyze social contamination processes. This study presents a case study of transnationalism for migrants from Borşa (Maramureş) to Milan. At the end of the article, there are some ways in which transnationalism, as a theory and research perspective, can be used in ethnic analysis in Eastern Europe.

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Coeziunea socială şi climat interetnic în România, octombrie–noiembrie 2008

Author(s): Zsuzsa Sólyom / Language(s): Romanian

The Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities carried out a representative survey on the interethnic climate in Romania in collaboration with the Research Center for Interethnic Relations. The research methodology was prepared by taking into account previous quantitative research on the topic. Carried between 24 October - 7 November 2008, the survey included two parallel samples: a national sample consisting of 1189 persons from all regions of Romania (Moldova, Muntenia, Oltenia, Dobrogea, Transylvania, Crisana-Maramureş, Banat, Bucharest) and a subsample of 534 persons who declared themselves as Hungarians (from Transylvania, Crisana-Maramureş and Banat); the enlarged sample of Hungarians (included in both samples) comprised 612 persons in total.

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Sistemul instituţional al minorităţilor etnice din România

Author(s): Dénes Kiss / Language(s): Romanian

Having the objective to draw a minority institutional model, the present study analyzes the ethnic minority organizations from Romania in a comparative perspective. At the same the study intends to increase knowledge about, and to facilitate access to these minority institutions. The study contains three chapters: the first lays down the theoretical basis for drawing the institutional model; the second chapter presents the features of the minority institutional sphere; while the last chapter details the institutional system of each minority included in the analysis.

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