Ethnic and centerperiphery relations

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Ethnic and center-periphery relations

• 7/2/07

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Readings

• Brzezinski, Zbigniew 1989. Post-Communist
  Nationalism. Foreign Affairs Vol. 68 No 5
• Bax, Mart 2000. Planned Policy or Primitive
  Balkanism? A Local Contribution to the
  Ethnography of the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  Ethnos, Vol. 653, pp. 317-340.
• Remnick, David 1998. Yeltsin's Vietnam. In
  Resurrection The Struggle for a New Russia. New
  York Vintage Books.

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Discussion topics

• Anthropology of ethnicity and nationalism
• Politics of ethnicity/nationalism under communism
• Ethnic conflicts in post-Soviet context
• Film Children of the Refugee Camp

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Ethnicity

• The intellectual history of the term
• relatively short
• important since mid-1970s
• changing postcolonial geopolitics
• the rise of ethnic minorities activism
• Three analytical approaches
• Primordialism
• Constructivism
• ( Instrumentalism)

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Primordialism

• Objectivist approach
• real, tangible foundation to ethnic
  identification
• Cultural arguments
• shared cultural characteristics
• Language / traditions / beliefs / origin
• Biological arguments
• Population genetics and geography

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Primordialism

• Soviet anthropology
• Shirokogorov (1923)
• Ethnos is a group of people, speaking one and
  the same language and admitting common origin,
  characterized by a set of customs and life style,
  which are preserved and sanctified by tradition,
  which distinguishes it from others of the same
  kind.
• gt Bromley, Gumilev
• Ethnos as a bio-social organism

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Constructivism

• Ethnicity (gt and nation) social construction
• Ethnicity/nation exist primarily in the mind
• Barth Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (1969)
• Inter-group boundary mechanisms
• Manipulation of identities and their situational
  character
• Anderson Imagined communities (1989)
• Nation an imagined political community
• Postmodernist theories
• Contingency and fluidity, non-fixedness
• Ethnicity made, not given
• i.e. constructed in specific social and
  historical contexts

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Instrumentalism

• 1960s
• Ethnicity as a remnant of pre-industrial social
  order
• To be overcome by modern state / assimilation
  (eg. melting pot)
• Ethnicity a political instrument
• exploited by leaders
• in pragmatic pursuit of their own interests
• a product of political myths

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Nationalism

• ideology of a nation
• identification with the nation, rather than any
  other group
• general principle that the political and
  national unity should be congrunent (Gellner)
• Different bases for nationalism
• Eg. Ethnic nationalism
• Ethnic groups as politically distinct (Herder)
• Fascism extreme form of ethnic nationalism

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Types of nationalism

• Official vs unofficial
• state-orientated
• against existing state
• Four types of unofficial nationalism
• Unitarism
• Hegemonic
• Inegrative gt assimilationist
• Autonomism
• disintegrative, counterhegemonic
• Separatism (or secessionism)
• disintegrative, counterhegeminic
• Irredentism
• both intergrative and disintegrative

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Ethnic conflict

• conflict between ethnic groups
• Three main questions in the study of ethnic
  conflicts
• What leads to ethnic tensions?
• Holmes ten-point analysis
• 1) Historical tradition of antagonism
• 2) Official and unitarist nationalism
• 3) Rapid modernization and revolutionary change
• 4) Political structures (if opposed from above)
• 5) Political climate (liberalism gt xenophobia)
• 6) Poor regime performance (especially economy)
• 7) Perceptions of unequal and unjust treatment
• 8) Regime sycophancy towards a foreign power
• 9) Direct and indirect external stimulation
• 10) Alternative organisations and leadership

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Ethnic conflict

• Are ethnic wars about ethnicity at all?
• the concept of ethnic wars is a myth /
  misleading
• causes are institutional, political, and economic
• Eg. Ethnic groups reformulation of other
  differences
• Eg. 1930s census in Rwanda
• ten or more cows Tutsi
• everyone else Hutu
• What are the solutions to ethnic conflicts
  besides independence?
• gt Common economic interests

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Ethnic cleansing

• forced removal of individuals based on their
  ethnicity
• forced emigration gt deportation gt ethnicide
• Eradication of all physical traces of the
  expelled group
• Eg. cultural artifacts, religious sites
• Popular usage in 1990s
• etnicko cicenje (Croatian)
• Hrvatska Krajina newspaper
• Every Croat who today solicits for our enemies
  not only is not a good Croat, but also an
  opponent and disrupter of the prearranged,
  well-calculated plan for cleansing cicenje our
  Croatia of unwanted elements...

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Politics of ethnicity/nationalism under communism

• Marx
• nationalism
• related to capitalist state-building
• an ideology created by bourgeoisie
• proletariat consciousness
• internationalism
• working classes have no nation
• Communist states
• Most multiethnic
• Nationalist in form, socialist in content
• Official nationalism gt Homo sovieticus
• Unofficial nationalism suppressed
• eg Croatia, Lithuania, Ukraine in early 1970s

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Ethnic conflicts in post-Soviet context

• Post-communist revolutions
• Double-rejective revolutions
• i.e. also revolutions against external domination
• gt Lingering ethnic tensions and center-periphery
  conflicts
• Cases from the former SU
• Southern Caucasus
• Central Asia
• Moldova
• Central Russia
• Northern Caucasus

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Nagorno-Karabakh

• Soviet era
• Ethnically Armenian
• Part of Azerbaijan
• forced Azerification of the region
• Post-Soviet era
• violent clashes between 1988 and 1990
• referendum in 1991 - independence
• gt Violence against Armenians living in
  Azerbaijan
• gt land war between Armenia and Azerbaijan
• gt Ethnic cleansing
• gt at least 15,000 dead and 1 million displaced
• Current status
• de-facto independent state the Nagorno-Karabakh
  Republic

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Georgia/Abkhazia

• Soviet era
• part of Georgia (Stalin)
• Autonomous status
• Post-Soviet era
• 1989 ethnic tensions and violence
• 1992 - Abkhazia declared independence
• Georgian invasion
• Paramilitary activities
• 1993 - Ethnic cleansing on both sides
• Thousands dead
• entire Georgian population (250,000) displaced

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Georgia / South Ossetia

• Soviet era
• Autonomous region of Georgia
• Post-Soviet era
• 1989 - South Ossetia demands unification with
  North Ossetia
• gt South Ossetian autonomy
• Newspapers closed, Georgian language
• 1991 - violence
• gt 100,000 refugees
• 1992 - a ceasefire, relative peace
• Current status
• rising tensions

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Central Asia

• Soviet era
• Stalin divided Central Asia into five republics
• Borders
• Ethnic and linguistic inconsistency
• ethnic enclaves
• Unnatural
• not lines created by rivers and mountain ranges
• to discourage that there would ever be
  independence
• Post-Soviet era
• Tensions between Russians and titular ethnic
  group
• Eg. Northern Kazakhstan
• Civil war
• eg Tajikistan 1992-95
• Tribal ethnic violence
• Eg. Fergana Valley

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Moldova/Transnistria

• Soviet era
• left bank of the Nistru River
• Part of Moldovan SSR
• Post-Soviet era
• 1989 discriminatory language law in Moldova
• 1990 - Slavic "Soviet Republic of Transnistria"
  declared
• 1992 - civil war
• Russian troops
• gt 1500 dead
• Current status
• 2006 referendum 97 for joining Russian
  Federation
• poor human rights record
• arbitrary arrest and torture
• Restrictions on Romanian language

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North Ossetia vs Ingushetia

• Ossetians vs Ingush
• 1992
• violent territorial disputes
• gt hundreds dead and thousands of Ingush
  homeless
• Rise of Islamic fundamentalism among the Ingush
• 2004
• Beslan hostage crisis
• 300 Ossetian died
• some hostage takers were Ingush
•  

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Chechnya historical background

• Pre-1917
• Teip a Chechen tribal organization
• tribal communes self-identifying through descent
• Altogether about 130 (-300)
• Sunni Muslims
• converted 16th - 18th c
• first Russian invasion in early 18th c
• part of the Russian Empire since 1859
• Soviet era
• Checheno-Ingushkaya ASSR
• 23 Russians
• 1 million Chechens deported in 1944
• allowed to return in 1957

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Chechnya historical background

• Post-Soviet era
• inner abroad
• 1992 Russian Federation Treaty
• Chechnya and Tatarstan the only regions that
  refused
• both rich in oil
• Declaration of independence in 1991
• Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
• Dzhokhar Dudayev

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First Chechen War (1994-96)

• Chechnya
• "second Afghanistan
• Yeltsins Vietnam
• 40,000 Russian troops
• vs Chechen guerrillas
• Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis (1995)
• Outcome
• Chechen victory
• ceasefire in August 1996
• peace treaty in May 1997

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Second Chechen War (1999- )

• Series of apartment bulding bombings
  (August-September 1999)
• killed nearly 300 people
• Organised by FSB?
• gt the Second Chechen War
• Palestinization
• Jihad against Russia
• Suicide bombings
• Terrorist attacks
• Moscow Theatre Siege (October 2002)
• Beslan school hostage crisis

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Second Chechen War (1999- )

• Results
• Severe human rights violations
• 100,000 people killed (38 000-250 000)
• 200,000 refugees
• 100 Chechens disappear each month

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Stereotypes and racism

• Stereotypes of Chechens/Chechnya
• criminality
• dishonesty
• corruption
• center of organized crime and mafia
• corrupt business practices
• Racism / Caucasophobia
• all caucasians as "Chechen"
• Levada-Center poll
• 33 support banning Chechens from entering
  Russian cities

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Black widows

• shakhid women
• Prevalent since 2002
• earlier unthinkable
• against conservative Chechen gender roles
• Women traditionally peacemakers
• Still not accepted in guerrilla units
• Kremlin
• "import into Chechnya by other terrorist groups"
• "terrorists exploit women"

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Film

• Peeter Urbla and Toomas Kümmel
• Children of the Refugee Camp (2001)
• Duisi refugee camp in Georgia 50 km from the
  Chechen border
• Stories of Abdul and Nazarbek