De Facto States and Democracy: The Case of Abkhazia

De-facto states constitute an interesting and important anomaly in the international system of sovereign states. No matter how successful and efficient in the administration of their territories they are, they fail to achieve international recognition. In the past, their claims for independence were based primarily on the right to national self-determination, historical continuity and claim for a remedial right to secession, based on alleged human-rights violations. Since 2005, official representatives of several de facto states have repeatedly emphasised the importance of democracy promotion in their political entities. A possible explanation of this phenomenon dwells in the belief that those states which have demonstrated their economic viability and promote the organization of a democratic state should gain their sovereignty. This article demonstrates the so called "democracy-for-recognition strategy" in the case study of Abkhazia. On the basis of the field research in Abkhazia we identify factors that promote, as well as those that obstruct the democratisation process in the country.

Recognition of the Armenian Genocide as an Issue in Political Discourse in Armenia, Turkey and selected EU Countries

The issue whether to legally recognize the tragic events of 1915 in Eastern Anatolia as a genocide remains a key  political issue which drives an edge between Armenia and the Republic of Turkey. Through their European diaspora communities, the issue has also entered the domain of the European Union (EU), becoming even more controversial as Turkey is in the process of hotly contested EU accession talks. The present article uses the instruments of discourse analysis to focus on the current perceptions of the Armenian genocide in the various countries involved, specifically within the EU, Armenia and Turkey, in order to explore the political rationale behind the commitment of various states to recognize or deny the aforementioned historical events as an act of genocide. After providing a brief historical overview of the 1915 events, we analyse internal EU perceptions of the “reality” of the Armenian genocide recognition, primarily in relation to Turkey's accession efforts. We then focus on the domestic discourses in Armenia and Turkey, with the goal of shedding light on the rationale behind both Yerevan's encouragement of genocide recognition and Ankara's unwillingness to recognize the genocide, as well as on the political implications of recognition and denial.The issue whether to legally recognize the tragic events of 1915 in Eastern Anatolia as a genocide remains a key  political issue which drives an edge between Armenia and the Republic of Turkey. Through their European diaspora communities, the issue has also entered the domain of the European Union (EU), becoming even more controversial as Turkey is in the process of hotly contested EU accession talks. The present article uses the instruments of discourse analysis to focus on the current perceptions of the Armenian genocide in the various countries involved, specifically within the EU, Armenia and Turkey, in order to explore the political rationale behind the commitment of various states to recognize or deny the aforementioned historical events as an act of genocide. After providing a brief historical overview of the 1915 events, we analyse internal EU perceptions of the “reality” of the Armenian genocide recognition, primarily in relation to Turkey's accession efforts. We then focus on the domestic discourses in Armenia and Turkey, with the goal of shedding light on the rationale behind both Yerevan's encouragement of genocide recognition and Ankara's unwillingness to recognize the genocide, as well as on the political implications of recognition and denial

Conditions of Democratization in De-facto States: Case Study of Abkhazia

De-facto states constitute an interesting anomaly in the international system of sovereign states. No matter how long their control of claimed territory has lasted or how effective their capacities to provide governmental services to its population are, they fail to achieve international recognition. A change in the legitimising strategy adopted by the leaders of de-facto states came with the recognition of Kosovo’s independence by most western powers. In the past, their claims to independence were based primarily on the right to national self-determination, historical continuity and claim to a remedial right to secession, based on alleged human-rights violations. Increasingly, though, these arguments have been supplemented by an emphasis on “democratisation-for-recognition-strategy”. According to this strategy, those states that proved their viability as democratic states should earn their sovereignty. The aim of this article is to demonstrate this strategy on an instrumental case study of Abkhazia. As a result of the study of secondary literature on the topic of de-facto states democratization, supported with field research in Abkhazia, we try to identify those factors which are promoting and on the other hand obstructing a democratization process in such a de-facto state