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The modern Turkish state is a typical nation-state, as it is originally defined by the Westphalian international political and legal order. This essential feature of the modern Turkish nation-state is the product of the theoretical concept and the fundamental political and ideological principles and postulates of Kemalism (Kemal Ataturk), that is, the paradigm of the modern Turkish constitutionality and the modern Turkish determination of its national identity. This national identity is the identity of a nation-state, that is, the identity of a nation as a political nation, as a citizens of the modern Turkish state (nation-state). The modern Turkish national identity in this sense does not have its own classical ethnogenesis, that identity is not an ethno-national identity, but it is identity of a true nation-state that includes in itself all the special ethno-national identities, united as a Turkish national identity of a nation-state. The ethno-national identity for the paradigm of the modern Turkish national identity is exclusively only private and personal determination of individuals citizens of the modern Turkish nation-state, which does not recognize, accept or admits the constitutional-legal order of the modern Turkish state. More over, these ethno-national identities have treatment of a factor of essentially jeopardizing the integrity and cohesion of the modern Turkish nation-state.
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The article offers a survey of the activities of the associations for friendship between Bulgarians and Greeks in Bulgaria in the last decades. These associations are viewed as a contemporary form of mutual cultural communication between the two peoples and the meaning of the two communities as a “bridge” between Bulgaria and Greece is highlighted. The study focuses on the present condition of these processes and on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on them. It examines concrete examples of changes in the activities of the associations in Sofia, which are indicative for the life of the communities with Greek self-identification in Bulgaria in the pandemic situation.
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Scientific life, conference report
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Modern societies are associated with the constant flow and acceptance of information and communication technologies at home, in the workplace, in the process of education, even in recreational activities. The development of new technologies has not only challenged human rights, but also politics and society in general. Even more importantly, this new technological level has also empowered transnational corporations operating in the digital environment as hosting providers to perform quasi-public functions in the transnational context. New technologies have the potential to make significant positive contributions to the prevention, promotion, and protection of human rights and democratization, decentralization, and digitalization of politics and the advancement of society as a whole.
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The genesis of St. George’s Day as the day of Pomorie displays the mutual development of its modern historical political myth and the last three decades’ festivity. After the democratic changes in 1989, the patron holiday of the Anhialo monastery that continued to be observed even during socialism and the fair that accompanies it were developed and transformed into an official holiday, but invented rituals brought about a myth shift: from the established in the course of a century narrative about the fight for and the restoration of justice to a story of the offered fraternal hand and forgiveness. Based on the research of the myth–ritual interaction, the author searches for answers to the questions about the significance of St. George’s Day for the local community and about this holiday’s ability to serve both national and pluralistic tasks.
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In my article, I analyse the newspaper imprints of some jubilee celebrations performed in the minds of Russian émigrés in Bulgaria, but also outdoors and indoors, between 1919 and 1944. Basing on M. Spariosu’s theory of exilic-utopian imagination and on the intuitive premise that an émigré community would inevitably pursue/problematize its accommodation within the host society, I locate the Russian émigré community and its celebrations within a tri-axial communicative situation whereby impulses for (self-aggrandising) introspection, mental war with the exiling power (sovietised Russia), and domestication of the host milieu are detectable. Considering newspapers as the most effective sites to host places of celebration for a (non-persecuted) ethno-cultural minority in the first half of the 20th c., and basing on prior historiography on the Russian émigrés of Bulgaria and on an overview of their periodicals, I identify as most conspicuous a constellation of jubilees that gravitated around the 50th anniversary from both the beginning and the completion of the 1877–1878 Russian-Ottoman war. Thus, I am able to discern the specificity of the communicative situation of that particular Russian émigré community against the benchmark of the ‘metropolitan’ one based in Paris. I approach these “imprints”, or “places of celebration”, as visual-verbal compositions (elaborating D. Georgiev’s ‘architecturology’ of newspaper); and as textualised experiences potentially reminiscent of the two cultural archetypes of “jubilee” for (post)Christian humankind, the Hebraic and the Roman ones.
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This study uses the theory of collective memory in international politics to examine the connection between collective memory and foreign policy to investigate why the Belt and Road Initiative has witnessed slow progress in Thailand. Qualitative data were gathered from various sources, including books, newspapers, journals, policy documents, and textbooks. The study concludes that cooperation between states is essential for achieving shared objectives but is contingent upon establishing mutual trust. Collective memories that one country maintains concerning another country can influence mutual understanding and trust, becoming ingrained even if the situation responsible for the memories changes or no longer exists. In the case of Thailand and China, the Thai government’s push for the high-speed rail project faced criticism and concerns due to the public’s deep-seated fears and distrust of China, the result of historical events and past experiences. This paper’s findings highlight the state’s role in creating collective memory and otherness, recognizing that external variables such as major power activities play a significant role.
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Community development is vital in networking and creating social capital. Local governments in Kosovo cooperate closely with their communities by offering public and social services, inclusivity, and social integration. This cooperation increases active citizenship, community development, social welfare, and local democracy. This paper aims to research and analyze the relationship between local governments and their communities, focusing on providing social services. The applied methodology included a quantitative survey of 300 respondents from three municipalities: Pristina, Fushe Kosove, and Obilic, targeting citizens aged 18 and above of both genders. The results show that local authorities in these municipalities offer community services and include their communities in policy-making and decision-making. While they also offer social services, community-based services should be restructured, and local authorities should pay more attention to empowering the community more comprehensively.
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The German population living in the Eastern European territories reached by the Red Army in 1944 was subjected to systematic cleansing. In Bulgaria, this process took place within an institutional framework and generated a substantial dialogue between the Soviet Control Commission, the Bulgarian State, and its German inhabitants. The study of this administrative dialogue reveals movements in the categorical repertoire created on institutional level in order to identify potential foreign enemies. Belonging of the so-called Germans to the national community was assessed through their religious, historical, social, or family affiliations. The heterogeneity of this population grouped from above reveals a strong social reality: the anti-German measures mainly affected individuals from mixed families, legally or ethnically related to the German world. This mixity appears to have been a problematic attribute for the ongoing administrative classification. The specificity of the category of intermarriage and its function multiplied the facets of this population and encompassed through the family institution the existing perceptions of what was an ‘enemy’ or a ‘friend’ of the new order. The classification of undesirable persons from mixed families generated unequal relations with the state, between locals and foreigners, between citizens and non-citizens, but also between women and men. By looking at the diversity of the studied group through the lens of identity representation analysis numerous questions related to the aspects of the complex social reality of the Bulgarian population at the end of World War II arise.
More...София: ИЕФЕМ – БАН, ИК „Парадигма“, 2022. 628 стр. с ил. ISBN 978-954-326-496-4
Book review
More...Marek Jakoubek, Vladimir Penčev. Češi a Slováci v Bulharsku: Příspěvky ke studiu české, slovenské a československé krajanské přítomnosti v bulharských zemích. Praha: Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury, 2022, 216 с. 978-80-732 5548-0
Book review
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The paper analyses the evolution of the notion of cultural heritage from a comparative perspective and verifies the impact produced by the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 9 countries (Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Jordan, Cyprus, Spain, Burkina Faso, Korea, Japan).
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This article examines the process of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage as a factor for sustainable development. It traces and highlights the synergies between intangible cultural heritage and sustainable development. At the same time the author explores the interconnections between the different domains of intangible cultural heritage and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, through the normative documents of the leading international organisations in the field.
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As UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage turns twenty, the article focuses on its primary aim of safeguarding people’s living cultural traditions, practices, and expressions at the local level. Safeguarding measures are promoted throughout the Convention and related texts, but it is arguably the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices through which actual approaches are presented as being put to the test. The article uses the Register as a launchpad for examining community-based approaches to safeguarding ICH, and distilling “good” considerations for building ethical and equitable collaborations – from the first steps of initiatives to over the long term.
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The 2003 Convention and Its Implementation in Bulgaria
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The research conducted in this article is a substantiation of the method for strategic management of the development of the Ukrainian border security environment. The essence of the method is to determine the phases for the current state and the projected period for particular sectors of the state border, depending on their inherent characteristics, further selecting the concept of border security on this basis, establishing the type of barriers and criteria for ensuring border security that are appropriate for use. Further application of the methodology involves conducting a SWOT analysis for particular sectors of the state border, which identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the internal environment, opportunities and threats inherent in the external environment, and the formation of possible strategies for ensuring border security in three variants of organizing activities (in the conditions of day-to-day activities, a complication of the situation and martial law). Based on the results of the analysis and the illustrative example, it can be concluded that the proposed method for strategic management of the development of Ukraine’s border security environment is one of the possible effective mechanisms in the activities of the subjects ensuring Ukraine’s border security.
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