Separatism and Regionalism in Modern Europe Separatism and Regionalism in Modern Europe Edited by Chris Kostov Logos Verlag Berlin λογος Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de . Book cover art: c © Adobe Stock: Silvio c © Copyright Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH 2020 All rights reserved. ISBN 978-3-8325-5192-6 The electronic version of this book is freely available under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence, thanks to the support of Schiller University, Madrid. Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH Georg-Knorr-Str. 4, Gebäude 10 D-12681 Berlin - Germany Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 42 85 10 90 Fax: +49 (0)30 / 42 85 10 92 https://www.logos-verlag.com Contents Editor's introduction 7 Authors' Bios 11 1 The EU's MLG system as a catalyst for separatism: A case study on the Albanian and Hungarian minority groups 15 Y ILMAZ K APLAN 2 A rolling stone gathers no moss: Evolution and current trends of Basque nationalism 39 O NINTZA O DRIOZOLA , I KER I RAOLA AND J ULEN Z ABALO 3 Separatism in Catalonia: Legal, political, and linguistic aspects 73 C HRIS K OSTOV , F ERNANDO DE V ICENTE DE LA C ASA AND M ARÍA D OLORES R OMERO L ESMES 4 Faroese nationalism: To be and not to be a sovereign state, that is the question 105 H ANS A NDRIAS S ØLVARÁ 5 Divided Belgium: Flemish nationalism and the rise of pro-separatist politics 133 C ATHERINE X HARDEZ 6 Nunatta Qitornai: A party analysis of the rhetoric and future of Greenlandic separatism 157 E LLEN A. A HLNESS 7 Italy's separatist and autonomous spots: Historical and economic overview 177 A NDREA C ARRERA AND H AZEL D ONEGAN 8 The Turkish Cypriot quest for statehood: From a religious minority to a de facto state 197 T UFAN E KICI AND S ERTAÇ S ONAN 5 Contents 9 The Scottish independence movement in the 21st century 225 N ATHALIE D UCLOS 10 Moldova's Transnistria question: Is the term frozen con ict still applicable? 249 W ILDER A LEJANDRO S ÁNCHEZ AND L UCIA S CRIPCARI 6 Editor's introduction Separatism and regionalism have always been serious issues in Europe. Yet, most of the separatist movements were kept frozen during the Cold War, with some notable exceptions, such as the Basque Country and Northern Ireland, where the powerful terrorist organizations, ETA and IRA, kept the idea of independence of their respective regions alive; or Cyprus, where two states were de facto formed to divide the Greek Cypriots from their Turkish counterparts. The end of the Cold War opened Pandora’s box of regionalism and separatism across Europe, and var- ious regionalist movements and parties started to discuss autonomy and, in some cases, independence of their regions. Regionalism and separatism pose once again a significant threat to the territorial and political integrity of the traditional nation- states. The established democracies of Western Europe are trying to tackle the re- gionalist challenge via a political dialogue, using their democratic institutions and procedures in order to avoid armed conflicts. Yet, in Eastern Europe, where, on the one hand, democratic institutions are very young and fragile and, on the other hand, strong regional players such as Russia and Turkey get involved, separatist movements have led to armed conflicts and permanent military presence. We also need to define clearly what we understand by cultural and regional iden- tities that are used as a justification for the establishment and existence of a large number of separatist and regionalist movements in Europe. Cultural and regional identities are sub-national identities that make people conscious of their distinc- tiveness from the dominant mainstream culture of the particular nation-state, due to a different language or dialect, religion, historical development, economy, po- litical factors, administrative division, or varying combinations of some or all of the above. Thus, if we follow the definition of Athena Leoussi, we may refer to regionalism as a “set of movements demanding the economic, political and cultural autonomy of certain areas or ‘regions’, which form part of one or more states” (Leoussi, 2001, p. 263). Regional identities might be genuinely based on cultural attributes, such as re- ligion, language/dialect, but they can also be based on non-cultural geographic and economic territories. There are numerous culturally based regional identities: Flanders, Catalonia, Ticino, Scotland, Corsica, the Basque Country, Kosovo, Brit- tany, and Transylvania are a few examples. In all these cases, a different language, religion, customs, culture, and history, as well as in some cases a level of political and economic autonomy (Flanders and Kosovo), are strong factors that reinforce the local cultural identity. In the case of Transnistria, which is covered in this vol- ume, or the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and Crimea, which are not 7 Editor's introduction covered in this volume, besides the Russian language and culture, non-cultural po- litical and geographic factors as well as the military intervention and aggression of a third party, Russia, have also played a significant role in the triggering of violent separatist conflicts. Thus, it is quite clear that regardless of the strong desire of virtually all nation- states to present their countries as unified by a single strong mainstream culture and language, regional sub-national identities are alive and kicking across Europe. These sub-national groups might cause conflicts and crises but their existence is inevitable in democratic states. The scope of separatism and regionalism in Eu- rope is quite wide, and it includes de facto states , such as Kosovo, Transnistria, and North Cyprus; strong separatist movements aimed at achieving independence , for ex- ample, Catalonia, Basque Country, Scotland, Flanders, and Faroe Islands; strong movements aimed at more regional autonomy , for example, Lombardy and Veneto; and weaker regional movements, which could potentially escalate in the future, for example, Transylvania in Romania or Vojvodina in Serbia. This edited volume is designed to shed light on the revival of regionalism and separatism via a thor- ough evaluation and analysis of some of the most important current separatist and regionalist/autonomist movements in modern Europe. Yılmaz Kaplan’s study “The EU’s MLG system as a catalyst for separatism: A case study on the Albanian and Hungarian minority groups” compares the Al- banian minorities in Kosovo and North Macedonia and the Hungarian minori- ties in Romania’s Transylvania, Serbia’s Vojvodina, Slovakia, and Transcarpathian Ukraine to examine how these groups take advantage of the EU structure and the multi-level governance (MLG) system of the EU to boost their claims for further autonomy. Onintza Odriozola, Iker Iraola, and Julen Zabalo wrote “A rolling stone gath- ers no moss: Evolution and current trends of Basque nationalism” to analyze the evolution of Basque nationalism in both Spain and France from its origins to its current transformation. In the third chapter “Separatism in Catalonia: Legal, political, and linguistic aspects,” Fernando de Vicente, Chris Kostov, and María Dolores Romero Lesmes employ a multidisciplinary approach in order to analyze how the local separatists use law, politics, diplomacy, and language to achieve full independence as well as the potential legal and political consequences for Catalonia. Hans Andrias Sølvará provides a detailed overview and analysis of Faroese na- tionalism in “Faroese nationalism: To be and not to be a sovereign state, that is the question.” He concludes that the Faroese case is an example of a semi-independent entity with a long complex history of foreign domination. Catherine Xhardez focuses on the case of Flemish nationalism in her paper “Di- vided Belgium: Flemish nationalism and the rise of pro-separatist politics” and offers a detailed political analysis of the Belgian political system, arguing that the 8 Chris Kostov future of Flemish nationalism strongly depends on the relationship between the two dominant pro-separatist political parties in Flanders: the right-wing Nieuwe Vlaamse Alliantie (New Flemish Alliance, N-VA) and the far-right Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest, the VB). Ellen A. Ahlness goes beyond the geographic borders of Europe to a territory that is politically closely connected to our continent—Greenland. In her paper “Nunatta Qitornai: A party analysis of the rhetoric and future of Greenlandic separatism,” Dr. Ahlness reveals how indigenous self-determination is used by local activists to achieve Greenlandic independence after 300-year-old Danish colonial rule. Andrea Carrera and Hazel Donegan make a tremendous effort to track the historical and economic evolution as well as the legal aspects of all regional au- tonomies and separatist movements in Italy. Their study “Italy’s separatist and autonomous spots: Historical and economic overview” includes an analysis of the Italian regions Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardinia, Sicily, Veneto, Lombardy, Trentino- Alto Adige/Südtirol, and Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste to cover the most active regionalist groups in contemporary Italy. In “The Turkish Cypriot quest for statehood: From a religious minority to a de facto state,” Tufan Ekici and Sertaç Sonan follow the roots of Turkish Cypriot nationalism from Ottoman and British colonial times to the current dilemma that Turkish Cypriots have to face, to reunify with the Greek Cypriots or join Turkey. In “The Scottish independence movement in the 21st century,” Nathalie Duclos analyzes in detail how Scottish regionalism or “unionist nationalism” turned into Scottish separatism/independentism during the inter-war years of the 20th century. She also points out the central role of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in this process. The last chapter “Moldova’s Transnistria question: Is the term ‘frozen conflict’ still applicable?” by Wilder Alejandro Sánchez and Lucia Scripcari is dedicated to Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria, which also includes a brief overview of the situation of Gagauzia—another autonomous region of Moldova. Sànchez and Scripcari point out the key role of the Russian troops and interference in this conflict and argue that this conflict could not be resolved without the participation of Russia. The active Russian involvement and even encouragement of separatist conflicts as a way to prevent the Euro-Atlantic integration of former Soviet republics such as Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia is a very curious issue, and one of the limitations of this volume is that it does not offer case studies on the separatist movements in Eastern Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk), the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula, and the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and Ossetia, which also have claimed independence with the support of Russian troops. French re- gionalism in Corsica, Brittany, and elsewhere has also been omitted. Yet, even 9 Editor's introduction without the inclusion of these important separatist conflicts, the present volume offers quite a comprehensive overview and analysis of some of the most visible nationalist movements and conflicts across Europe. Thus, it may be a valuable source for academics, students, and members of the general public specializing or interested in contemporary nationalist and separatist groups and movements in Europe. Dr. Chris Kostov, Volume Editor References Leoussi, A. S. (Ed.) (2001). Encyclopedia of Nationalism. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transac- tion Publishers. 10 Authors' Bios Dr Yılmaz Kaplan works at Erzurum Technical University in Turkey. He has an MS c degree in Politics (European Studies) from Lund University (Sweden) and a PhD degree in Politics from University of York ( UK ). His main research inter- ests are the European integration, globalization, international political economy, nation-state, and (new) institutionalism. Onintza Odriozola is PhD in Sociology. She is a lecturer in the Department of Didactics of Social Sciences of the University of the Basque Country ( UPV / EHU ), and member of the Parte Hartuz Research Group. Her main lines of research are the discourses and political practices of Basque nationalism, and the role played by language and culture in the construction of national identities. Iker Iraola is PhD in Sociology. He is a lecturer in the Department of Sociol- ogy and Social Work of the University of the Basque Country ( UPV / EHU ), and member of the Parte Hartuz Research Group. His main research interests are na- tionalism and political sociology, and he is specialized in the relationship between Basque nationalism and migrations. Julen Zabalo is PhD in Political Geography. He is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at the University of the Basque Country ( UPV / EHU ), and member of the Parte Hartuz Research Group. He has published several works on identity and current Basque nationalism. In collaboration with other authors, he has published Imagining the Basque State, a research on the perceptions of a Basque state. Fernando de Vicente de la Casa is PhD in Law ( ICADE ) and Executive MBA ( IESE ). At present, he is Director of UK Operations in Schiller International Uni- versity. He has been Academic and Quality Director of Nebrija Business School (Universidad Antonio de Nebrija), Academic Director, and later Dean of the Busi- ness School of Know How Group, and has created and led for 6 years the HR consulting division of that group. He has also practiced as a lawyer and is the au- thor of numerous publications in magazines specialized in tax law. Chris Kostov is an Adjunct Professor in the School of International Relations at IE University Madrid, Spain. He earned his PhD in History and Canadian Stud- ies from the University of Ottawa, Canada. His main academic interests include Balkan and modern European nationalism and Communist repressions in Cold War Eastern Europe. He is the author of three books as well as a number of book chapters, journal and encyclopedia articles. 11 Authors' Bios Professor María Dolores (Lola) Romero Lesmes is from Mérida, Spain, and she has worked and lived in the US and Colombia. She completed a Bachelors’ degree in Education at the University of Seville, a Masters’ in Spanish at American Uni- versity (Washington, DC ) and a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics at the Complutense University of Madrid. She has taught Spanish as a Second Language, Spanish cul- ture and literature and translation for over 25 years to students from all over the world in various higher education institutions in the United States and Spain. In addition to her teaching experience, she has published several articles related to the economic value of the Spanish language and in the international system. Hans Andrias Sølvará is PhD, Professor in History at the University of Faroe Islands (Fróðskaparsetur Føroya) and Dean at the Faculty of History and Social Science. His main research area is the political history of the Faroe Islands and historical method. He has written several scientific articles mainly related to the political history of the Faroe Islands in addition to 10 books and several other edited books. Catherine Xhardez is is currently an FWO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for European Studies ( Vrije Universiteit Brussel ). Dr. Xhardez is conducting a compar- ative research agenda focusing on dynamics of immigration policymaking at the subnational level in federal states. More generally, she studies immigration, public policy, comparative politics, nationalism and federalism. Ellen A. Ahlness currently serves as a fellow with the Center for Environmental Politics and Washington Institute for the Study of Inequality and Race. A graduate of the Northern Arctic Federal University’s Russia in Arctic Dialogue program, her interests include Indigenous and Arctic geopolitics. Her work appears in Arctic Yearbook and Current Developments in Arctic Law, among other journals Inquiries may be directed to eahlness@uw.edu Andrea Carrera is Full Professor of Economics at Nebrija University, Madrid, Spain. His research interests are in monetary economics, monetary history, and economic intelligence. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Lugano, Switzerland, and an MPhil in Economics from Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. Hazel Donegan holds a B.A. in International Business from the University of Central Lancashire. She has supported projects for the European Union Intellec- tual Property Office and the National Health Service of the United Kingdom. Tufan Ekici is a quantitative social scientist with a background in Economics. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the Ohio State University with specialization in applied microeconomics. He has worked in higher education institutions in the USA and Cyprus for more than 15 years and is also the author of the book ‘A 12 Discordant Polity’ on the political and economic history of Northern Cyprus. He is currently working at Ramapo College of New Jersey, USA Sertac Sonan works as an Associate Professor at Political Science & International Relations Department at Cyprus International University. He is the Director of Centre for Cyprus and Mediterranean Studies at the same university. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from Universität Duisburg-Essen (Germany). His research interests include political clientelism, corruption, Cyprus conflict, and Turkish Cypriot politics and economy. Nathalie Duclos is a Professor of British Politics and History at the University of Toulouse (France). Her research interests lie in the field of Scottish politics, with a focus on Scottish nationalism, the Scottish National Party and the wider Scottish independence movement. Among other publications, she is the author of the book L’Ecosse en quête d’indépendance? Le référendum de 2014 (Paris: Presses de l’université Paris-Sorbonne, 2014). Wilder Alejandro Sanchez is a geopolitical and defense analyst who covers West- ern Hemisphere and Post-Soviet regions. His research interests include weapons transfers, separatist movements and peacekeeping operations. He has published analyses in various journals, including European Security , Small Wars & Insurgen- cies , The Polar Journal, among others. He holds an M.A. from American Univer- sity, and a B.A. from Ursinus College. Lucia Scripcari is an LL.M. candidate in Private Law at Koç University, Istanbul. She also holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Mar- mara University, formerly ̧ Sehir University, Istanbul. A Moldovan citizen, she has co-authored various analyses about Eastern European affairs which have appeared in Geopolitical Monitor , International Policy Digest , Providence magazine, among others. 13 1 The EU 's MLG system as a catalyst for separatism: A case study on the Albanian and Hungarian minority groups Y ILMAZ K APLAN 1 Introduction Political stability has been one of the main goals of the European integration project since it was initiated in the 1950s. However, the integration cannot ensure it even after 60 years. The increasing separatist movements in the EU , in particu- lar, have become a significant factor threatening the political stability of the EU . At first glance, the flame of far right or populist leaders might be seen as the primary reason behind this increasing trend, but we need to develop a better understanding of it. Specifically, a structural analysis originating from the institutionalist school of thought might provide further knowledge. To this end, this study takes both the EU and the nation-state as the unit of analyses and scrutinizes whether any struc- tural interaction between the two plays a role in increasing separatism in the EU through a case study focusing on the Albanian and Hungarian minority groups. The pluralist nation-states in West Europe might have the capacity to absorb separatist movements and deal with them through democratic means. Yet, the ethnocentric nation-states in Eastern Europe lack this capacity. They historically push for endogenous homogeneity (e.g., bureaucratic unity and creation of a sin- gle nationhood) and exogenous heterogeneity (differentiation from other). This institutional structure might be interpreted as an automatic pressure on minority groups in these countries. In the post-Cold War era, the EU ’s eastward enlarge- ment managed to freeze potential ethnic clashes but has not eliminated them. Its multi-level governance ( MLG ) system also has the capacity to aggravate the situa- tion. Contrary to the ethno-centric nation-state’s abovementioned motivation, the EU ’s MLG system forces the member states to gain an endogenous heterogeneity (e.g., sub-national governance and greater autonomy for minor groups) and an ex- ogenous homogeneity (Brussels-centered governance), and this structural pressure might be perceived by minority groups as leverage against their host nation-state. In Eastern Europe, nationhood as a collective identity encourages minority groups to develop an external homeland perception toward neighboring kin countries, and almost every nation-state has a tendency to follow kin-state policies to access their external kin communities in their neighboring countries. For instance, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary have adopted laws to protect 15 1 The EU 's MLG system as a catalyst for separatism their kin communities in their neighboring countries. As a result, the EU ’s MLG system emerges as a means for ethnic unification, and this encourages minority groups for the bid for further irredentism. To make this complex institutional relationship more concrete, this study focuses on the Albanian and Hungarian minority groups in Central and Eastern Europe and Balkans. To illustrate, the recognition of Kosovo as an independent country by the EU has revived the ambi- tion of Albanian irredentists in Kosovo and North Macedonia to achieve the Great Albania in the EU . In the same vein, Hungarian minorities in Transylvania try to benefit from the EU ’s structure to gain further autonomy and develop a closer relationship with their kin state (i.e., Hungary). As a reaction to these attempts, na- tionalist sentiments against the EU are also growing in the host nation-states (e.g., Romania). All in all, the increasing irredentism as an outcome of the structural relationship between the EU ’s MLG system and the nation-state in Eastern Europe has the capacity to destabilize the political stability on the continent in a dialectical way. To make these arguments clearer, the first part carries out an institutionalist analysis of the relationship between the nation-state and the EU ’s MLG system. Later on, by using the theoretical knowledge extracted from this analysis, the study explains how the EU ’s MLG system might play a catalyst role in the Hungarian and Albanian separatist movements. 2 Post-territorial statehood and trans-territorial nationhood within the EU 's MLG system The MLG approach literature strongly associates territoriality with the survival of a nation-state. As borders are becoming less and less relevant to the governance of the new global system, this approach perceives nation-state as a transient political structure that would face definitive decline in the new system (Axford & Huggins, 2000; Borghini, 2018). For example, Jessop (2004b, p. 64) points out a “trend to- wards the de-nationalization of territorial statehood” and “new state capacities be- ing reorganized territorially on subnational, national, supranational, and translocal levels” within the EU structure. To put it differently, the EU ’s multi-level frame- work operates as a state-building process in practice and produces “transnationally regulated spaces of governance” (Hameiri, 2010, p. 4). The production of new gov- ernance spaces will automatically limit nation-state to provide sufficient “political goods” (i.e., services) for its citizens, and social actors would look for alternative governance spaces to maximize their interests (see also Rotberg, 2003). As a result, the redistribution of sovereign competency toward supra-national and sub-national level would hollow nation-state out (Jessop, 2004a). In this sense, Marks, Hooghe, and Blank (1996, p. 346) argue that nation-state is no longer a monopoly of power as “subnational actors operate in both national and supranational arenas” and cre- 16 Ylmaz Kaplan ates “transnational associations in the process” (see also Liesbet & Gary, 2003). On the other hand, according to this approach, hierarchical structure of the nation- state has no obvious economic rationale in the new global system, and new global forces oppose the nation-state dominated world system (Casella & Weingast, 1995, p. 13). From this point of view, this research agrees on the point that the EU ’s MLG system produces “transnationally regulated spaces of governance,” and they might limit the nation-state’s territoriality to some extent. However, the nation-state as a deliberative actor is also aware of these alternative governance spaces and tends to exploit them in favor of its national interests. This case study shows that the Hun- garian state performs as a post-territorial statehood within the EU ’s MLG frame- work in order to provide political goods and services to the Hungarian minority groups in its neighboring countries. Moreover, the Albanian state is also aware of this opportunity, and it tends to use its expected EU -membership to access the Albanians in Kosovo and North Macedonia. On the other hand, this case study also observed that the new governance spaces have also resulted in trans-territorial nationhood entanglement within the EU ’s MLG system, through which minority groups might endogenously connect themselves to their kin state thanks to the limited power of the host-state’s sovereign power on them. Before giving detailed analysis on these findings, this section needs to explain how post-territorial statehood and trans-territorial nationhood entanglement trig- gering secessionist sentiments might be possible within the EU ’s MLG system. The MLG ’s functionalist understanding perceives the nation-state as a structure in which real actors seek their interests, but not a deliberative actor (Jeffery, 2011, p. 137). However, “the nation-state is the prime vehicle of political organization in the contemporary world” (Giddens, 1985, p. 254), and as intergovernmental- ist scholars argue, considering the nation-state as a deliberative actor in the EU studies might reveal new knowledge on the integration process (e.g., see Milward, Brennan, & Romero, 2000; Moravcsik, 1993/1998; Moravcsik & Schimmelfennig, 2009). In this regard, the nation-state has two institutional segments: statehood and nationhood, and the entangled relationship between these plays an important role in making nation-state a deliberative and adaptive actor within the European integration process. Particularly, statehood can be conceptualized as an “infras- tructural power” which represents the capacity of the state to penetrate a soci- ety (Mann, 1984, p. 189), and nationhood as a political/ethno-cultural collective identity makes this society willingly loyal to the power of the statehood. From a Weberian perspective, this relationship gives a unique nature to the nation-state compared to other political institutions, namely “monopoly of the legitimate use of force” (Zürn & Leibfried, 2005), and thanks to this power, the nation-state has a great capacity of institutionalization/bureaucratization which makes it a delib- erative/rational actor (Bendix, 1977; Weber, 1978). The high bureaucratization 17 1 The EU 's MLG system as a catalyst for separatism capacity also strengthens the nation-state’s immunity to exogenous pressures (e.g., globalization). Moreover, this entangled relationship is also dialectic (one might create another one). If we analyze the historical evaluation of nation-state, we can easily see that an initial institutionalization of statehood might create a political nationhood or a nationhood that has emerged as an ethno-cultural collective identity might create a statehood (Gellner, 1983, p. 6). For instance, Brubaker (1992) gives France as an example to the first scenario and Germany to the latter one. In this sense, the dialectic entanglement between statehood (kin state) and na- tionhood (kin communities) creates a strong national consciousness in Eastern Eu- rope, which aims to use the new governmental spaces created by the EU ’s MLG system. Historically, as the emergence of nationhood occurred before statehood in Eastern Europe, nationalism constituted a gravitational core for the future insti- tutionalization of statehood in Eastern Europe (see Gellner, 1983). In the region, nationhood was initially institutionalized through the expansion of nationalism from Western Europe, and then, the emerging national groups sought to estab- lish their nation-state by campaigning revolts against the imperial powers. The lack of statehood resulted in the ideological transfer of nationalism “without im- plementing the rule of law that had been constructed in Western Europe along- side state-building since the advent of the French and English revolutions” (Lukic, 2010, p. 40). Thus, ethnic nationalism became highly influential in the institu- tionalization of the nation-state in Eastern Europe (Kriegel, 1995). According to this nationalism understanding, “state is identified with a particular national group with a strong reference to ethnic, linguistic, cultural, or religious factors” (Pogany, 1999, p. 155). Despite this ethno-centric institutionalism, the nation-states could not form a homogenous territorial space, and “national minorities, even if toler- ated, remain at least potentially suspect” (Pogany, 1999, p. 155). The other side of the coin is that this exclusionist structure encourages national minorities to de- velop loyalty toward their kin state but not their host state. Moreover, frequent shifts in boundaries have increased irredentist feelings among the ethnic groups in East Europe (White, 2007, p. 111). As a result, the historical institutionalization of the ethno-centric nation-states in an ethnically diversified region has created a com- plicated dilemma in Eastern Europe. Therefore, the Eastern European countries are in a fragile interactive nexus. Brubaker (1996, p. 44) formulates this dilemma by arguing that the region has “(1) incipient national- and nationalizing states; (2) the national minorities in the new states; and (3) the external ‘homeland’ states to which the minorities ‘belong’ by ethnonational affiliation but not legal citizen- ship,” and it is hardly possible to achieve congruence between these dichotomous elements. As a result, when the Cold War ended, the mentioned dialectic entanglement kept those countries’ national consciousness highly awake, and a civil war similar 18