Comparative analysis of political systems and ethnic mobilization:Assimilation versus exclusion

The success of minority nationalisms and their claim to autonomy is primarily dependent on the popular support they receive from their constituencies. Aspirations of minority groups demanding self-rule are also accepted as democratic because of this popular consent. The unsuccessful autonomy referendums in both Puerto Rico and Corsica, however, deviated from this trend leaving questions behind about where and when autonomy is likely to be a democratic and realistic solution. The article elaborates on five variables explaining popular support for ethnonationalism and questions their reliability across the cases of Quebec, Flanders and Western Thrace. Experimenting with the most different systems design (the Mill’s method of agreement), this article concludes that minority nationalism is stronger in political systems of ethnic differentiation than assimilation. The article also verifies this in the contrasting cases of Corsica and Puerto Rico where the nationalist factions failed to mobilize their ethnic constituency because of their political culture being divided by the political systems of integration and assimilation.Publisher Statement: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41295-016-0004-

The making of a refugee. Children adopting refugee identity in Cyprus.

[Abstract Not Available

Refugees or enemies? The legacy of population displacements in contemporary Turkish Cypriot society

The context of the denial of existence of Greek Cypriot refugees by the dominant Turkish Cypriot nationalist discourse offers significant clues concerning the long-term impasse of negotiations about the future of Cyprus. Lack of acknowledgement of the suffering and deprivation caused by the pre-1974 uprooting of Turkish Cypriot civilians helped to breed an environment of a zero-sum game. In this context, within Turkish Cypriot society, post-1974 population movements on the island were largely regarded as 'war casualties'. This attitude led to the extended suffering of thousands of Greek Cypriots not involved in the atrocities or injustice that had affected Turkish Cypriots during the previous decades. The acknowledgement of the history and long-term effects of population displacements that have taken place since 1958 could thus be a crucial step in removing the Cyprus issue from the vicious circle of Greco-Turkish conflict