Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T16:50:23.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language and education laws in multi-ethnic de facto states: the cases of Abkhazia and Transnistria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Giorgio Comai Open the ORCID record for Giorgio Comai [Opens in a new window]  and
Bernardo Venturi Open the ORCID record for Bernardo Venturi [Opens in a new window]
Giorgio Comai*
Affiliation:
School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland
Bernardo Venturi
Affiliation:
Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
*
* Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Even after the conflicts of the early 1990s that brought them to their de facto independence, both Abkhazia and Transnistria remained strongly multi-ethnic. In both territories, no single ethnic group is an absolute majority and Russian is the language that is mostly spoken on the streets of Sukhumi and Tiraspol. Legislators of both entities felt the need to deal with multi-ethnicity and multilingualism, including in their constitutions, in laws related to education, or more directly with specific language laws (1992 law “On languages” in Transnistria; 2007 law “On the state language in Abkhazia”). The protection of linguistic rights that is formally part of the legislation of both territories finds limitations in practice. The language of education has proved to be particularly contentious, in particular for Moldovan/Romanian language schools in Transnistria and Georgian language schools in Abkhazia. Why are language laws in Abkhazia and Transnistria so different, in spite of the fact that they are both post-Soviet, multi-ethnic territories that became de facto independent in the early 1990s? The different approaches found in Abkhazia and Transnistria represent remarkable examples of language legislation as a tool for nation-building in ethnically heterogeneous territories.

Keywords

AbkhaziaTransnistrialanguage lawseducationde facto statesRussian language
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 43 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 886 - 905
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abaza, TV. 2014. Zasedanie Parlamenta, December 22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkYsGyqE3Ao.Google Scholar
Apsnypress. 2011. “Chislennost’ Naselenia Abkhazii Sostavliaet 240,705 Chelovek.” Apsnypress. info, December 8.Google Scholar
Apsnypress. 2013. “2100 Mal'chikov i Devochek Poshli v Pervye Klassy v Abkhazii.” Apsnypress. info, September 2.Google Scholar
Avidzba, Aslan. 2003. “O Segodniashnem Dne I Problemakh Armianskikh Shkol Gagrskogo Raiona.” Respublika Abkhazia, April 25.Google Scholar
Beril, S. I., I. N. Galinskii, I. M. Blagodatskikh, and Raspopova, S. L., eds. 2010. Iazykovii Suverenitet v Kontekste Politicheskoi Sub'ektivnosti Samoopredelivshikhsia Gosudarstv. Tiraspol: Tsentr Sotsialnykh i Politicheskikh Issledovanii “Perspektiva” PGU im. T. G. Shevhcenko – Assotsiatsia Universitetov Samoopredelivshikhsia Gosudarstv.Google Scholar
Bilaniuk, Laada, and Melnyk, Svitlana. 2008. “A Tense and Shifting Balance: Bilingualism and Education in Ukraine.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 11 (3–4): 340–372.Google Scholar
Blakkisrud, Helge, and Kolst⊘, Pål. 2011. “From Secessionist Conflict Toward a Functioning State: Processes of State- and Nation-Building in Transnistria.” Post-Soviet Affairs 27 (2): 178–210.Google Scholar
Blakkisrud, Helge, and Kolst⊘, Pål. 2012. “Dynamics of de Facto Statehood: The South Caucasian de Facto States between Secession and Sovereignty.” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 12 (2): 281–298.Google Scholar
Blauvelt, Timothy. 2007. “Abkhazia: Patronage and Power in the Stalin Era.” Nationalities Papers 35 (2): 203–232.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1994. “Nationhood and the National Question in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Eurasia: An Institutionalist Account.” Theory and Society 23 (1): 47–78.Google Scholar
Bruchis, Michael. 1982. One Step Back, Two Steps Forward: On the Language Policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the National Republics: Moldavian, a Look Back, a Survey, and Perspectives, 1924–1980. Boulder, CO: Eastern European Monographs.Google Scholar
Chinn, Jeffrey. 1994. “The Politics of Language in Moldova.” Demokratizatsiya 2 (2): 309–315.Google Scholar
Ciscel, Matthew H. 2006. “A Separate Moldovan Language? The Sociolinguistics of Moldova's Limba de Stat.” Nationalities Papers 34 (5): 575–597.Google Scholar
Ciscel, Matthew H. 2008. “Uneasy Compromise: Language and Education in Moldova.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 11 (3–4): 373–95.Google Scholar
Clogg, Rachel. 2008. “The Politics of Identity in Post-Soviet Abkhazia: Managing Diversity and Unresolved Conflict.” Nationalities Papers 36 (2): 305–329.Google Scholar
Cojocaru, Natalia, and Suhan, Stela. 2005. “Stratagems in the Construction of the Transnistrian Identity.” Social Psychology 15: 119–134.Google Scholar
Cojocaru, Natalia, and Suhan, Stela. 2006. “Transnistria: The Socio-Ideological Context of Invented Identities.” Transitions. La Moldavie: Entre Deux Mondes? 45 (2): 153–170.Google Scholar
Comai, Giorgio. 2011. “Abkhazia's Armenians, Multilingualism Is the Future.” Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, November 30. http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Regions-and-countries/Abkhazia/Abkhazia-s-Armenians-multilingualism-is-the-future-106982.Google Scholar
Comai, Giorgio. 2013. “Sovereignty Conflicts and Minority Protection: The Case of Abkhazia.” In Self-Determination and Sovereignty in Europe, from Historical Legacies to the EU External Role, edited by Bianchini, Stefano, 163–182. Ravenna: Longo.Google Scholar
Cullen, Anthony, and Wheatley, Steven. 2013. “The Human Rights of Individuals in De Facto Regimes under the European Convention on Human Rights.” Human Rights Law Review 13 (4): 691–728.Google Scholar
Constituţională, Curtea. 2013. Hotărăre Privind Interpretarea Articolului 13 Alin. (1) Din Constituţie Ìn Corelaţie Cu Preambulul Constituţiei Şi Declaraţia de Independenţă a Republicii Moldova. Curtea Constituţională, Sesizările nr. 8b/2013 şi 41b/2013, December 5.Google Scholar
Dale, Catherine. 1997. “The Dynamics and Challenges of Ethnic Cleansing: The Georgia–Abkhazia Case.” Refugee Survey Quarterly 16 (3): 77–109.Google Scholar
Dembinska, Magdalena, and Danero Iglesias, Julien. 2013. “The Making of an Empty Moldovan Category within a Multiethnic Transnistrian Nation.” East European Politics & Societies 27 (3): 413–428.Google Scholar
European Court of Human Rights. 2012. “Catan and Others Vs Moldova and Russia.” Grand Chamber Judgment, Strasbourg, October 19.Google Scholar
European Parliament. 2014. Right to Education in the Transnistrian Region. European Parliament resolution (2014/2552(RSP)), February 6.Google Scholar
Fadeeva, Svetlana Ivanovna. 2014. “Report of the Collegium of the Minister of Education of Transnistria.” February 18.Google Scholar
Fierman, William. 1998. “Language and Identity in Kazakhstan: Formulations in Policy Documents 1987–1997'.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 31 (2): 171–186.Google Scholar
Fierman, William. 2006. “Language and Education in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan: Kazakh-Medium Instruction in Urban Schools.” The Russian Review 65 (1): 98–116.Google Scholar
Fruntaşu, Iulian. 2002. O Istorie Etnopolitică a Basarabiei: 1812–2002. Chişinău: Cartier.Google Scholar
Galbreath, David J. 2005. Nation-Building and Minority Politics in Post-Socialist States: Interests, Influence, and Identities in Estonia and Latvia. Stuttgart: Ibidem.Google Scholar
Giger, Markus, and Sloboda, Marián. 2008. “Language Management and Language Problems in Belarus: Education and Beyond.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 11 (3–4): 315–339.Google Scholar
Goncharova, N., Dobroshtan, O., Luk'ianova, E., Omel'chenko, E., Sabirova, G., and Starkova, E. 2007. Molodezh Abkhazii: Shag v Budushchee. Sukhumi: NITs-Region.Google Scholar
Goujon, Alexandra. 1999. “Language, Nationalism, and Populism in Belarus.” Nationalities Papers 27 (4): 661–677.Google Scholar
Government of Transnistria. 2012. Ob Utverzhdenii Gosudarstvennoi Programmy “Uchebnik” Na 2013–2015, September 25.Google Scholar
Grecu, Mihai, and Ţaranu, Anatol. 2005. Politica de Epurare Lingvistică Ìn Transnistria. Chişinău: ULIM.Google Scholar
Grenoble, Lenore A. 2003. Language Policy in the Soviet Union. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Gribincea, Argentina. 2004. Politica de moldovenizare ìn RASS Moldovenească: culegere de documente şi materiale. Chişinău: Civitas.Google Scholar
Hammarberg, Thomas. 2013. “Report on Human Rights in the Transnistrian Region of the Republic of Moldova.” United Nations, February 14.Google Scholar
Hewitt, George. 1998. “Language.” In The Abkhazians, edited by Hewitt, George, 167–175. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2011. Living in Limbo: The Rights of Ethnic Georgian Returnees to the Gali District of Abkhazia. by Giorgi Gogia, Edited. New York, NY: Human Rights Watch.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. 2006. Abkhazia Today. Crisis Group Europe Report N°176, 15 September.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. 2010. Abkhazia: Deepening Dependence. Crisis Group Europe Report N° 202, February 26.Google Scholar
Ioanidi, N. N. 1990. Greki v Abkhazii. Sukhumi: Alashara.Google Scholar
Jones, Stephen F. 1995. “The Georgian Language State Program and Its Implications.” Nationalities Papers 23 (3): 535–548.Google Scholar
King, Charles. 1994. “Moldovan Identity and the Politics of Pan-Romanianism.” Slavic Review 53 (2): 345–368.Google Scholar
King, Charles. 1998. “Ethnicity and Institutional Reform: The Dynamics of ‘indigenization’ in the Moldovan ASSR.” Nationalities Papers 26 (1): 57–72.Google Scholar
Kolst⊘, Pål, and Blakkisrud, Helge. 2013. “Yielding to the Sons of the Soil: Abkhazian Democracy and the Marginalization of the Armenian Vote.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 36 (12): 2075–2095. doi:10.1080/01419870.2012.675079.Google Scholar
Kuchuberia, Andzhela. 2010. “Knuth Vollebek Is Concerned of Georgian Schools in Abkhazia.” Caucasian Knot, February 3. http://eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/12384/.Google Scholar
Kuraskua, V. B. 1971. “Stanovlenie i Razvitie Abkhaskoi Natsional'noi Shkoly v Sovetskoi Abkhazii (1921–1958 gg.).” PhD Diss., Moscow: Akademia pedagogicheskikh nauk SSSR.Google Scholar
Kvitsinia, M. 2014. “S 1 Sentiabria v Shkolakh Stolitsy Budut Otmeneny Roditel'skie Sbory.” Akua Sukhum – Gazeta Administratsii i Sobrania G. Sukhum, February 1. http://aizara-sukhum.org/gazety/A_S_3_2014.pdf.Google Scholar
Laitin, David D. 1993. “The Game Theory of Language Regimes.” International Political Science Review 14 (3): 227–239.Google Scholar
Laitin, David D. 1998. Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Muntean, Anatolie, and Ciubotaru, Nicolae. 2004. Romănii de la Est. Războiul de pe Nistru: 1990–1992. Bucureşti: Ed. Ager-Economistul.Google Scholar
Muth, Sebastian. 2014. “War, Language Removal and Self-Identification in the Linguistic Landscapes of Nagorno-Karabakh.” Nationalities Papers 42 (1): 63–87.Google Scholar
Negru, Elena. 2003. Politica etnoculturală ìn R. A.S. S. Moldovenească: 1924–1940. Chişinău: Prut International.Google Scholar
Ó Beacháin, Donnacha. 2012. “The Dynamics of Electoral Politics in Abkhazia.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 45 (1–2): 165–174.Google Scholar
Ó Beacháin, Donnacha, and Kevlihan, Rob. 2013. “Threading a Needle: Kazakhstan between Civic and Ethno-Nationalist State-Building.” Nations and Nationalism 19 (2): 337–356.Google Scholar
Oldrich, Andrysek, and Grecu, Mihai. 2003. “Unworthy Partner: The Schools Issue as an Example of Human Rights Abuses in Transdniestria.” Helsinki Monitor 14: 101–116.Google Scholar
OSCE. 2012. The Moldovan-Administered Latin-Script Schools in Transdniestria. Chişinău: OSCE Mission to Moldova and OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities.Google Scholar
Ozolins, Uldis. 2003. “The Impact of European Accession upon Language Policy in the Baltic States.” Language Policy 2 (3): 217–238.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta. 2006. “Russian as Lingua Franca.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 26: 78–99.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta. 2008a. “Multilingualism in Post-Soviet Countries: Language Revival, Language Removal, and Sociolinguistic Theory.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 11 (3–4): 275–314.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta. 2008b. “Russian in post-Soviet countries.” Russian Linguistics 32 (1): 59–80.Google Scholar
Polese, Abel. 2010. “The Formal and the Informal: Exploring ‘Ukrainian’ Education in Ukraine, Scenes from Odessa.” Comparative Education 46 (1): 47–62.Google Scholar
Potier, Tim. 2001. Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia: A Legal Appraisal. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
Prisac, Iulia. 2005. “The Republic of Moldova in Search of a New Formula of Cultural Diversity.” In The Challenges of Multiculturalism in Central and Eastern Europe, edited by Sandu Frunză, Nicu Gavriluţă and Jones, Michael S., 174–180. Cluj Napoca: Editura Provopress.Google Scholar
SaferWorld, and Institute for Democracy. 2011. Isolation and Opportunity in Eastern Abkhazia – A Survey of Community Security, March.Google Scholar
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. 1994. “Linguistic Human Rights in Education. Language Policy in the Baltic States.” Conference papers. Riga: Gara pupa.Google Scholar
Tarba, B. G. 1970. Leninskaia natsional'naia politika i bilingvizm u abkhazov. Sukhumi: Alashara.Google Scholar
Transnistria Bureau of Statistics. 2013. Statisticheskii Ezhegodnik PMR 2013. Tiraspol: Transnistria Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Transnistria Ministry of Education. 2011. “Obespechenie Konstitutsionnyikh Prav Grazhdan Na Poluchenie Obrazovania Na Rodnom Yazyke v Pridnestrovskoi Moldavskoi Respublike.” Accessed October 26, 2013. http://www.minpros.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=815&Itemid=1.Google Scholar
Trier, Tom, Lohm, Hedvig, and Szakonyi, David. 2010. Under Siege: Inter-Ethnic Relations in Abkhazia. London: Hurst & Co.Google Scholar
TV PMR. 2014. Moldova i Pridnestrov'e Budut Reshat’ Problemy v Sfere Obrazovania, March 18. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7vCJeqv8tU.Google Scholar
Ulasiuk, Iryna. 2011. “Language Policies and Law in Education in Post-Soviet Belarus.” European Center for Minority Issues Working Papers 50.Google Scholar
Van Meurs, Wim. 1998. “Carving a Moldavian Identity Out of History.” Nationalities Papers 26 (1): 39–56.Google Scholar
Vaux, Bert. 2007. “Homshetsma, the Language of the Armenians of Hamshen.” In The Hemshin. History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey, edited by Simonian, Hovann, 257–278. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Waters, Christopher. 2006. “Law in Places That Don't Exist.” Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 34: 401–423.Google Scholar
Wheatley, Jonathan. 2009. “Georgia and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.” European Center for Minority Issues Working Papers 42.Google Scholar
Zamyatin, Konstantin. 2012. “The Education Reform in Russia and Its Impact on Teaching of the Minority Languages: An Effect of Nation-Building?” Journal on Ethnopolitics & Minority Issues in Europe 11 (1): 17–47.Google Scholar