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Transnational minorities challenging the interstate system: Mingrelians, Armenians, and Muslims in and around Abkhazia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Kimitaka Matsuzato
Kimitaka Matsuzato*
Affiliation:
Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
*
* Email: kim@slav.hokudai.ac.jp
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Abstract

The collapse of socialist regimes resulted in tremendous regional realignments in the regions surrounding the heartland of Eurasia. Remarkably, not only states, but also transnational actors have played significant roles in this process. This study highlights transnational ethnicities (Mingrelians, Armenians, and Muslims) in Abkhazia, and tries to describe how the involvement of transnational religious organizations (such as the Armenian Apostolic Church and Turkey's Diyanet) affected the politics around these minorities. In the Black Sea rim, interstate and transnational politics are rather autonomous from each other. For example, when scores of powerful countries, such as the United States and European Union member states, desperately tried to ignore Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, regarding it as a lawless act, Turkey's Diyanet admitted that Russia's recognition of Abkhazia created a new legal situation and began to fulfill its long-dreamed-of desire to help the Abkhazian Muslims. According to political conjuncture in Abkhazia, the same Gali population changes from Georgians to Mingrelians and back. This demonstrates how ethnic categories are used in a constructivist way in the Black Sea rim.

Keywords

transnational minoritiesAbkhaziaMingreliansArmeniansMuslims
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 39 , Issue 5 , September 2011 , pp. 811 - 831
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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