In the mirror of transitology: The politics of power alternation in the Caucasus and Central Asia

In 2021 the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus celebrate the 30th anniversary of independence. According to the paradigm of transitology, the political development of a state since the departure from the authoritarian regime entails progressive liberalization and democratization of political processes. And, in accordance with the predominant theoretical approaches, the post-Soviet states were expected to follow this path. However, a closer look at the specifi c scenarios of power alternation in the Central Asia and the South Caucasus provides a much more mixed picture: here the change of ruling elites took very diff erent forms and shapes. The choice of scenario for the transfer of power was always determined by a complex combination of internal and external factors, including the nature and characteristics of the political system of a particular state, its ethnic com-position, the socio-economic situation and external environment. Nevertheless, it is possible to discern several key scenarios: a ‘revolutionary’ scenario, which implies a violent change of power; an intra-elite consensus; transition of power to a successor; a hereditary transmission of power; democratic elections; a resigna-tion of a president. A comparative analysis of the political processes unfolding in the region over the past 30 years shows that even institutionally the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus are not ready yet for a competition policy. Moreover, the latter is generally viewed by their leaders as a threat to both the stability of the state and to the interests of the ruling elites. To this may be added the expansion of diff erent informal, archaic political practices across the post-Soviet space. The latter include the sacralization of power, when national interests are equated with the interests of the ruling clan and the whole national identity is built up around this nexus. All this shows the limits of classical transitology theory when it comes to political transformations in the post-Soviet space, which it is unable to explain, yet alone to predict their possible future development. Thus, there is a strong need to develop new theoretical frameworks that would better accommodate particularities of the regional political systems.

Does Origin Matter? Ethnic Group Position and Attitudes Toward Immigrants: The Case of Russia

This article analyzes the relationship between the relative position of an ethnic group, as measured by its majority/minority status at a subnational level, and attitudes of its members toward immigrants of different origins. Based on the Russian case, it addresses the question whether the effects of in-group majority status within a region on attitudes toward the general category of immigrants hold regardless of out-group origin and, if not, what may drive this variation. Using data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of the Higher School of Economics and Bayesian hierarchical structural equation modeling, the study demonstrates that the relative position of an ethnic in-group is of varying importance as a predictor of attitudes toward migrant groups of European versus non-European origin in Russia. A group’s majority status within a region proved to play a role in predicting attitudes toward migrants originating from the “south” (encompassing North and South Caucasus; Central Asia; and China, Vietnam, and Korea) but not toward migrants coming from the “west” (Ukraine and Moldova). We draw on arguments related to the source and the level of threat induced by the out-groups, ethnic hierarchies, and group cues to explain this pattern of results.

FROM THE HISTORY OF HORSEBREEDING AT ABAZINS OF THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS

The aquatic part of this article provides a brief historical information about the Abaza people (Abaza, Abkhaz, Ubykh), who have inhabited the territory of the North-West and South Caucasus since ancient times. The main part of the article examines the history of horse breeding of the Abaza people, starting from ancient times. In the final part, the modern stage of development of the Abaza horse breeding is described

Analogie historyczne w sytuacji postkolonialnej

The historical experience of the region on the frontier of civilizations that is the South Caucasus is marked by alternating periods of short-term independence and long-term subordination. The geographical location at the meeting point of the Great Steppe, Asia Minor and Mesopotamia invariably means that political and strategic interests intersect in the region. Thus, since ancient times, the subjugation of the South Caucasus has been a goal within the imperial policies of the powers located south of the Arax River and north of the Great Caucasus range (the most commonly accepted borders of the region). Short-lived periods of formal independence usually did not entail full internal sovereignty and subjectivity in external actions. Different forms of dependency - political, economic, military or cultural and social - defined the internal situation in the region. Historically, the South Caucasus has been stuck between Rome and Persia, Arab caliphates and Byzantium, Turkish states and Persia, being also the object of destructive Mongol and Tamerlan invasions. Since early modernity, the region has been a space of clashing influences and attempts to gain dominance of three imperial ideologies and, at the same time, civilizational visions - Persian (Iranian), Turkish (Ottoman) and Russian (including a somewhat different form of Soviet).

Współpraca wojskowa NATO z państwami Kaukazu od 1991 roku

NATO declares open door policy towards aspiring countries since 90s. States from South Caucasus region took the effort to adjust its defense and security systems to NAO standards. To become a fully-fledged NATO members the main obstacle remains the lack of political will to extend NATO commitment to collective defense. Additionally self-imposed limitations of some NATO members stemming form 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act plays a vital role. It’s hard to assume that new Strategic Concept will grant an automatic membership to any of NATO partner countries. Georgia, Armenia nor Azerbaijan have been seriously considered as NATO member states. The door are barely open.

The European Union–Azerbaijan high-level transport dialogue: A timely reaction to the structural changes?

The European Union (EU) and Azerbaijan high-level transport dialogue is the continuation of the long period of cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan in the area of transport since the early 1990s. The geopolitical and geo-economic maps of Eurasia, the South Caucasus, and the regions around have significantly changed since then thanks to rise of China, India, and other regional actors. These actors in their turn began to initiate competitive logistical and transportation projects to define terms and conditions of the making of Eurasian transport and trade routes. The ultimate goal is to have a share in controlling global flows passing through the strategic spots of Eurasian landmass. The EU’s recent transport dialogue with Azerbaijan reflects and is reaction to those changes that happened in the wider Europe, in Eurasia, and in the globe. This paper tries to place the EU and Azerbaijan transport dialogue to a broader picture to find out what changes conditioned and necessitated the upgraded dialogue between the EU and Azerbaijan. To do so, it traces the EU and Azerbaijan’s transport policies and cooperation since the early 1990s.

New records of leeches of the genus Limnatis (Hirudinea, Praobdellidae) from the South Caucasus and Central Asia: phylogenetic relationships of Eurasian and African populations

Leeches of the genus Limnatis Moquin–Tandon, 1827 infest mucous membranes of various mammals, including humans and domestic ungulates. The type species of the genus L. nilotica (Savigny, 1822) was initially thought to occur throughout the Western Palaearctic, from North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia. It was later found that L. paluda (Tennent, 1859) is a widespread Western Asian species. However, the South Caucasus and vast areas of Central Asia have not been explored sufficiently in terms of leeches of the genus Limnatis. We recorded L. paluda from Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan for the first time. We also carried out the first molecular characterisation of L. nilotica herein. We found a deep genetic differentiation (8 %) between the Western Asian L. paluda and North African (Moroccan) L. nilotica based on their COI sequences. This finding corroborates a previous morphology–based hypothesis on their separate species assignments. The low genetic diversity of L. paluda is explained by the recent colonisation of arid landscapes of Western Asia.

Inspiracje Grigorija G. Gagarina i jego rola w procesie kształtowania stylu rosyjsko - -bizantyńskiego w architekturze dziewiętnastowiecznego Imperium Rosyjskiego – zarys zagadnienia

The paper represents an attempt to outline Grigory G. Gagarin’s artistic interests and his influence on creating one of the national style variants in the 19th -century Russian Empire: the Russian -Byzantine style. This article is not only a selection of theoretician’s quotes, but also an attempt to create an appropriate background and clear context for his theses. Moreover, the paper is to constitute a coherent outline of his thoughts having an impact on the creating of the national style and the search for architectural inspiration from selected periods of history. An interesting fact is that because of Gagarin’s first attempts to develop consistent norms and determinants of inspiration, among others, for architects and artists, he created foundations to formulate in the future a clear theoretical assumption of the Russian -Byzantine style. What is more, the theoretician did not avoid the confrontation of Russian art with Western European culture. Gagarin tried to not only indicate the relationships between the evolution of specific styles in art and architecture, but also their mutual influences and consequences. In the paper’s narration another important thread in the theoretician’s activity is also mentioned: his attitude to the cultural heritage of the North and South Caucasus. In the 19th century, the region’s territories formed the southwestern borders of the Russian Empire, and moreover they were the destinations of Gagarin’s diplomatic activities for the Romanov dynasty and the Russian Empire. The paper is an introduction to further research not only into Gagarin’s position in the process of creating the national style in the Russian Empire in the19th century. Furthermore, the research will bring up his functioning in the Western European artistic-cultural society of that time and his attempts to find mutual inspiration in Western and Eastern Europe.