Around the Bloc: Putin, Dodik Meet Ahead of Illegal Republika Srpska Referendum
Milorad Dodik’s defiance of ban on ‘Statehood Day’ plebiscite seen as bid to highlight weakness of Bosnia’s central authorities, pave way for secession vote.
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Milorad Dodik’s defiance of ban on ‘Statehood Day’ plebiscite seen as bid to highlight weakness of Bosnia’s central authorities, pave way for secession vote.
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Review: Elżbieta Rybicka, Geopoetyka: Przestrzeń i miejsce we współczesnych teoriach i praktykach literackich [Geopoetics: Space and Place in Contemporary Literary Theories and Practices], Universitas, Cracow 2014.
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It is located 1,500 kilometres north of St Petersburg, 2,000 km north of Moscow and 450 km above the Arctic Circle. For 43 winter days there is no sunlight. For 62 summer days and nights the sun does not allow the tired senses a moment of rest. This is Teriberka – the edge of the world. It is located on the rocky shores of the Barents Sea and is a ghostly place, finding its balance on the edge between life and death, between being present and fading away.
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Вряд ли в России найдется еще один город, как Иваново, где бы так рельефно, «грубо, зримо», говоря словами Маяковского, проступали черты советскости. Причем, я сразу хотел бы оговорить то обстоятельство, что советскость нельзя сводить к пресловутой совковости, которая, конечно же, весьма наглядно проявлялась в существовании советского Иванова. Чего стоят, например, факты тотального замалчивания приезда в наш город в середине прошлого века Андрея Тарковского, Андрея Вознесенского, Булата Окуджавы, Евгения Евтушенко, чьи имена, по мнению ивановских властей, были чужды родине Первого Совета. Соц-артовский дискурс, конечно, может и должен найти место в проекте «Иваново — самый советский город», но он, этот дискурс, ни в коей мере не должен перекрывать главного: представления об Иванове как своеобразном капиллярном сосудике советской цивилизации.
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The article analyses the perception of the Ivanovo regional identity in the post-Soviet intellectual space. It is emphasized that for correct use of concepts «the Ivanovo collective farmers» and «Sveta from Ivanovo» it is necessary to consider historical features of the Ivanovo region.
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The Kyiv city is analysed in this article. We describe Kyiv as a capital city, the main city in the country. But Kyiv is also the main town of the homonymous province — Kyiv region. The concept of the "value of void", proposed by L. Salmin, is the basis of our analysis. Accordingly, Kiev is considered as a city of void, in which the idea of a city square (Maidan) is pronounced — as an empty space which can be used for various purposes: from fairs to protest meetings, from the meeting place to the transit area .
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The focus of the article is on the image of the region reflected in the Novgorodian regional media field through conflict discourse. The article presents the results of media texts analysis: their linguistic peculiarities and the image of the author based on institutional and genre factors.
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В Екатеринбурге 18 марта 2015 года в рамках Международного научно-методического семинара «Совершенствование гуманитарных технологий в образовательном пространстве вуза: факторы, проблемы, перспективы» прошло секционное заседание Научной группы УрФУ «Открытый город: от теоретического изучения к инновационному проектированию». Участники обсудили возможности преобразования городов посредством социокультурных и дизайнерских проектов, опирающихся на теоретические разработки ученых гуманитариев и экономистов.
More...Memory, History, Religion: Exploring Irish-Romanian Boundaries in Peter Hurley’s THE WAY OF THE CROSSES
This paper will look at the manner in which Romania is perceived by an Irishman, Peter Hurley, living here for twenty years, traveling on foot from Săpânța to Bucharest (26 days, 650 kilometers) and recounting it all in a book, The Way of the Crosses (2013). The title of Hurley’s book may have been inspired by a hybrid Irish-Romanian experience, signaled to the author by another Irishman, Shaun Davey, who, in 2009, composed music triggered by the “lyrics” of the epitaphs on the crosses in the Merry Cemetery of Săpânța, Romania. Traveling, being inspired by Romanian landscape and culture, with the background of the Irish writer’s “sense of place”, Hurley’s account is meant to reach audiences beyond the Romanian border and enable further interaction. The project of walking the way of the crosses and the writing about it, drawing maps and showing pictures fit in the Irish author’s preoccupations with bringing to the fore authentic traditional Romania. His travel writing becomes a means through which Romanian-Irish personal and collective memory are transmitted beyond boundaries, avoiding ideological perspectives, using elements such as Dacian pottery, Romanian ceramic production today and the story of the last family of potters in Maramureș. The translation of aspects of Romanian culture involves recalling legends, rituals, beliefs, stories, historical accounts, which are resituated in a transnational context (for instance, haystack making in Maramureș and the West of Ireland, Romanian children in popular costumes playing with plastic Chinese-made toy-guns, a Romanian peasant as the Last of the Mahicans). Hybridity also results from the author’s bilingualism (e.g. praying at a troiță in Romanian and translating the prayer into English in the book or keeping the Romanian words for “traistă”, “horincă”, “zacuscă”, “șindrile”).
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Kadın adlarından esinlenerek adlandırılan boy ve yer adları günümüz Kırgızistan topraklarında fazla olmamakla beraber çeşitlilik arz etmektedir. Bu çeşitlilik kadının Kırgız toplumunda önemli yere sahip olduğunu gösteriyor. Kırgızların konar-göçer yaşamındaki kadının rolü, Kırgızistan’daki yer, boy adlarında kadın adlarının kullanılmasında etkili olmuştur. Bu makalemizde Kırgızistan’daki yer ve boy adlarındaki kadın adlarını sınıflandırmaya ve neden kadın adının kullanıldığını açıklamaya çalışacağız
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Subcarpathian voivodeship that was formed in 1999 as a result of the administrative reform preserved voting traditions from all former voivodeships that comprise the current territorial unit of the country. It is noteworthy that the most important factors that significantly influenced electoral preferences of the Subcarpathia voivodeship were dominating electoral habits after 1989; electoral system elements, selected socio-economic indicators, as well as historical and religious determinants. The abovementioned factors are also supported by the positively verified partitions hypothesis, according to which it is assumed that in each partition area different patterns of political culture as well as various dominating political and ideological orientations were formed. This process was determined by policies of partitioning powers towards Polish citizens in the annexed areas, as well as the character and way of organising state by the partitioning powers, the level of their economic and cultural development. It is by means of following tradition that the above patterns are passed from generation to generation, which firstly confirms its timelessness, and secondly finds its reflection in election results in Subcarpathia.
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The key objective of the article is to present, compare and criticize three selected geopolitical and geostrategic concepts concerning the Arctic area. One of the main question emerging from the analysis of relatively old concepts of George Renner, Alexander de Seversky and Andre Beaufre is whether ( to what extent) and how they are dealing with the present situation in the Arctic as well as if there could be find some wider framework for geopolitical analysis of the Far North. Moreover, an attempt to show the significance of issues related to the northern polar areas, particularly in geopolitical perspective, as made. Indeed, it is important to recognize and distinguish phenomena, which may play crucial role on shaping the renewed geopolitical Arctic region.Without a doubt, some of the issues raised by these authors remain valid nowadays, nevertheless, it should be considered today if there may appear favorable conditions for the more far-reaching consequences in the future, taken by mentioned theoreticians into account
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Kahire – Bağdat – İstanbul uç noktalı KABAİS ÜÇGENİ ve bu üçgeni çerçeveleyen KABAİS ÇEMBERİ kapsamındaki toprakların hassasiyeti ve odak noktası olan Kıbrıs adasının değerini birçok asker, diplomat, siyasi, iktisadi strateji uzmanı idrak edememiştir. Sadece 21. yüzyıl için değil aynı zamanda son dört yüzyıldır üç şehir üzerinde oyunlar oynanmaktadır. Bu üç şehir 19. yüzyıl sonlarına kadar Osmanlıların elindeydi. Dünyanın merkez ve en stratejik üçgeni olan bu üç şehir şu anda da Müslüman dünyasının elinde görünmektedir. Bu üç şehir, üç kıtanın en stratejik konumunda yer almaktadır. Bu üç kıta Afrika, Asya ve Avrupa’dır. Bu üç şehir ise Kahire, Bağdat ve İstanbul’dur. Her üç şehir de dünyanın en büyük medeniyetlerine başşehir olmuştur. Tarihteki çeşitli Türk Devletleri, bazı dönemlerde bu üç şehri kendilerine başkent yapmıştır.
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Gelişen ve ilerleyen teknoloji hayatımızı kolaylaştırırken, dünyayı da küçültmüş ve insan hayatına yönelik tehlikelerin daha çabuk yayılmasına imkan sağlamıştır. Dünyanın herhangi bir yerinde ortaya çıkan yeni veya değişip güçlenerek geri gelen eski bir bulaşıcı hastalık, artık dünyadaki çok uzak yerlere dahi kolay ve hızlı bir şekilde ulaşabilmekte ve dünya çapında salgınlara yol açabilmektedir. Bu nedenle bulaşıcı hastalıkları hassas bir şekilde ve yakından takip etmek gerekmektedir. 2009 Nisan ayında Meksika’da başlayan ve etkileri hala devam eden Domuz Gribi (H1N1) gibi bulaşıcı hastalıkların toplum sağlığını tehdit etmesi; uluslararası işbirliği yanında kamu güvenliğine yönelik çalışma ihtiyacını ön plana çıkarmıştır. Bulaşıcı hastalıklar kişiden kişiye bulaşabilme ve geniş kitlelere yayılma yeteneğine sahip hastalıklardır. Bireysel sonuçları ağır olabilmekle birlikte, büyük kitleleri etkileme gücü olduğundan, toplumsal sonuçları da hayati olmaktadır.
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Altay sıra dağları, Tanrı sıra dağları gibi Asyanın meşhur, Türk dünyasının kutlu sıra dağlarından biridir. Bu sıra dağlar ve etraf coğrafyası en eski çağlardan günümüze dek, Türk aleminin merkezi, ekseni olmuştur. Türklerin batıya kaymasıyla birlikte Altayların bir kısmı Moğulların hakimiyetine geçmiştir. Altay dağ adının nereden geldiği alimleri iki asırdan beri meşgul etmiş, bu hususta çeşitli fikirler ileri sürülmüştür. Ancak ortaya kimsenin reddedemeyeceği, genel kabul görmüş bir izah konulamamıştır. Bu yazımızda Altay sıra dağ adının nereden, nasıl geldiğini ortaya koyacak ve uzun zaman devam eden bu sorunsalı bitireceğiz.
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In this work we discuss the forest area and coverage stability in the Holy Cross Mountains in Poland. We analyzed data from the beginning of the 19th century to 2011. The analysis was based on the comparative cartographic methodology in GIS using four archival and one contemporary maps showing forest coverage in 1800, 1900, 1930, 1983, and 2011. The area of the highest forest coverage stability, where the presence of forest was documented on every analyzed map is 21,0% of the Holy Cross Mountains. The area corresponding to 28,9% of the Holy Cross Mountains was periodically covered by forest. Forests in the Holy Cross Mountains are natural landscape dominants, covering mostly mountain ranges and hilltops.
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For centuries, the Black Sea countries have been the area of contact between the zones of different civilizations (Christian and Muslim) and a region of great importance not only due to geopolitical and geo-economic reasons, but also the cultural and social ones. Political instability in the Black Sea countries (conflicts in the North Caucasus, in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the conflict on the Crimean Peninsula and Transdnistria) poses a threat to the safety of not only the countries of that region, but also the other countries of Asia and Europe. The primary objective of this article is to analyze the policy of the Russian Federation, as one of the most important regional players and to present and explain the perception of the Russian authorities of the Black Sea countries. The analysis will be covered by historical, economic and political situation conditions in this area. In the course of the analysis of the geopolitical situation in the Black Sea area, it is extremely important to focus not only on the policy of coastal states and those directly associated with that region, but also on the presence of the other players in this area (the European Union and NATO).
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Ukraine is the largest country in Eastern Europe. Relations with Ukraine are important for Russia. Russia is trying to define its interests towards Ukraine and Eastern European countries. “Near abroad” is from the beginning the zone of its interests. In order to reintegrate and reconstruct dominant position in this part of the world, Russia undertakes political, economic, socio-cultural and military activities. Ukraine is an excellent example of the use of the Russians, because Russia has the ability to influence the internal situation by the presence of the Russians in the political, economic and cultural life. An example of the use of the Russian minority as a tool to control post-soviet space is a crisis in the Ukraine 2013 – 2014. Its effect has become the inclusion of the Crimean peninsula into the Russian Federation. Russia interfered in the internal affairs of Ukraine, using the argument of protection of Russian minority in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The questions arise. Is this a new form of control of the post-soviet space? Does this a precedent become a tool to recall order countries which are trying to get out of the Russian zone of influence?In practice Russian neo-imperialist game means striving to keep the Russian space and maintain a sense of national identity of Russians, what will allow Russia to influence the political processes taking place in the countries of the Russian minority, both through it and in defense of its rights.
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The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, has opened for Turkey new opportunities for cooperation with the Southern Caucasus countries, namely Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, the area is not free of conflicts. From the Turkish point of view conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan is the most problematic. It is one of the elements that makes it impossible to regulate the Turkish relations with Armenia. Then in Turkey's relations with Georgia a main problem is Abkhazia, which formally belongs to Georgia. The Southern Caucasus area is particularly significant for Turkey due to energy security. The destabilization of this situation could seriously undermine Turkey’s security in the region and deprive Turkey of the position of a transit country for energy resources. Russia's interest in this area is another matter which complicate situation in the region, especially that Russia is not very dependent on resolving existing disputes in the region.
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The article is an attempt at a comparison of two mining phenomena: North American Gold rushes and mining of the Soviet Gulag labour camps. Both of them were a from of the peripheral mining and the European civilization expansion towards undeveloped areas. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zeland. Some of the Gulag camps were positioned in the remote areas of northeastern Siberia. In spite of all the differences between them, there existed many similarities which concerned both irrational and rational features of these phenomena.
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