The referendum as an institution in the Black Sea Region: Does it signal the rise or collapse of democracy?

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 161-185
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Podolak

Views on the institution of direct democracy have changed during the period of democratic transition. The various advantages and positive effects of direct democracy have been confirmed by the practice of some democratic countries. Its educational and political activation value for society was also noted, without which civil society cannot form. The referendum is especially treated as the purest form of correlation between the views of society and the decisions of its representatives. In a situation where two representative bodies are present – the parliament and the president – a referendum is considered a means of resolving disputes between them in important state affairs. The referendum is nowadays becoming more than just a binding or consultative opinion on a legislative act, especially a constitution. First and foremost, it is important to see the extension of the type and scope of issues that are subject to direct voting. Apart from the traditional, i.e., constitutional changes, polarising issues that raise considerable emotion have become the subject of referenda. Problems of this type include, in particular, moral issues, membership in international organisations, and so-called ‘New Policy’. This article presents the role and importance of the referendum as an institution shaping the democratic systems of the Black Sea Region.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 323-338
Author(s):  
Nino Abakelia

Abstract The subject under scrutiny is Sephardic and Ashkenazi synagogues in Batumi (the Black Sea Region of Georgia) that reveal both universal and culturally specific forms. The paper is based on ethnographic data gathered during fieldwork in Batumi, in 2019, and on the theoretical postulates of anthropology of infrastructure. The article argues that the Batumi synagogues could be viewed and understood as ‘infrastructure’ in their own right, as they serve as objects through which other objects, people, and ideas operate and function as a system. The paper attempts to demonstrate how the sacred edifices change their trajectory according to modern conditions and how the sacred place is inserted and coexists inside a network of touristic infrastructure.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Cantaluppi

The meetings of cultures in the Black Sea region was the subject of the seventh international conference in Black Sea Studies, held in January 2006 by the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Selcuk Selimli ◽  
Ziyaddin Recebli ◽  
Semra Ulker

The subject of this study is the seawater distillation process enhancement through integration of the solar vacuum tube into the system. Positive effects on the rate of distillated freshwater achieved by means of the enhanced system have been investigated experimentally. Experiments were done in the Turkish city of Samsun in the Black Sea region. A distillation pond setup having the volume of 0.015m3 and a water surface area of 0.24m2 was constructed. The distillation pond is covered with a condensation glass and also equipped with a 0.15m solar vacuum tube that is inclined at an angle of 30o to the ground, a feed water tank connected with a ball cock, and distillated fresh water tank. Experimental results have shown that the rate of distilled fresh water was enhanced for about 62.5% by integrating the solar vacuum tube and the natural distillation pond. Isolation of the condensation glass not only prevents the light transmission to the pond but also heat loss from the pond; hence the rate of the distillated fresh water is increased for about 137.5% due to the natural distillation.


Author(s):  
PILIPENKO S. ◽  

The use of birch bark in the design of knife sheaths and sabers have become the subject of our research more than once. These theses are no exception. Research carried out in recent years in the Black Sea region, and the study of museum collections, allow us not only to identify new pieces of cold steel weapons of the 17th-18th centuries, with the scabbard made of birch bark, but also to identify common technological traditions with earlier samples of cold weapons from the archaeological sites of medieval nomads in the south of Western Siberia. One of the topical issues in the study of the design features of the sheath of bladed weapons of the 16th -18th centuries. In the North Caucasus and Eastern Poland, there are issues of continuity in the use of birch bark in their design. Keywords: Saber-chechugi, Armenian saber, scabbard, birch bark, medieval nomads, western Siberia, Eastern Poland, north Caucasus, Black Sea region


Paléorient ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-182
Author(s):  
Bleda S. Düring ◽  
Bernard Gratuze

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil Oynakov ◽  
Liliya Dimitrova ◽  
Lyubka Pashova ◽  
Dragomir Dragomirov

<p>Low-laying territories along the Black Sea coastal line are more vulnerable to the possible high (long) waves due to tsunami events caused by strong earthquakes in the active seismic regions. Historically, such events are rare in the Black Sea region, despite some scientific evidence of tsunamis and their recordings through continuous sea-level observations with tide gauges built in certain places along the coast. This study analyses seismic data derived from different international earthquake catalogues - NEIC, ISC, EMSC, IDC and Bulgarian national catalogue (1981 - 2019). A catalogue of earthquakes within the period covering the historical to the contemporary seismicity with magnitudes M ≥ 3 is compiled. The data are processed applying the software package ZMAP, developed by Stefan Wiemer (http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/en/research-and-teaching/products-software/software/ZMAP/index.html). The catalogues' completeness is calculated to assess the reliability of the historical data needed to assess the risk of rare tsunami events. The prevailing part of the earthquakes' epicentres are in the seismically active regions of Shabla, the Crimean peninsula, the east and southeast coast of the Black Sea forming six main clusters, which confirmed previous studies in the region. In these areas, several active and potentially active faults, which can generate tsunamigenic seismic events, are recognized.</p><p><strong>Acknowledgements: </strong>The authors would like to thank the Bulgarian National Science Fund for co-funding the research under the Contract КП-СЕ-КОСТ/8, 25.09.2020, which is carried out within framework of COST Action 18109 “Accelerating Global science In Tsunami HAzard and Risk analysis” (AGITHAR; https://www.agithar.uni-hamburg.de/).</p>


Author(s):  
George Gotsiridze

The work, on the one hand, highlights the mission of Europe, as an importer of knowledge, which has for centuries been the center of gravity for the whole world, and, on the other hand, the role of the Black Sea Region, as an important part of the Great Silk Road, which had also for a long time been promoting the process of rap-prochement and exchange of cultural values between East and West peoples, until it became the ‘inner lake’ of the Ottoman Empire, and today it reverts the function of rapproching and connecting civilizations. The article shows the importance of the Black Sea countries in maintaining overall European stability and in this context the role of historical science. On the backdrop of the ideological confrontation between Georgian historians being inside and outside the Iron Curtain, which began with the foundation of the Soviet Union, the research sheds light on the merit of the Georgian scholars-in-exile for both popularization of the Georgian culture and science in Eu-rope and for importing advanced (European) scientific knowledge to Georgia. Ex-change of knowledge in science and culture between the Black Sea region and Europe will enrich and complete each other through impact and each of them will have unique, inimitative features.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 639-648
Author(s):  
E. S. Chelebieva ◽  
N. V. Dantsyuk ◽  
K. A. Chekanov ◽  
I. N. Chubchikova ◽  
I. V. Drobetskaya ◽  
...  

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