Kosovo and the Framing of Non-Secessionist Self-Government Claims in Romania

Abstract

This contribution focuses on the consequences of the international controversy over Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) for domestic debates over sub-state territorial restructuring. The main argument is that, in the absence of a clear distinction in international politics between secessionist and non-secessionist claims, state elites employ ‘Kosovo’ effectively for invoking the spectre of secessionist violence even in consistently non-secessionist and non-violent settings, delegitimising all culturally framed claims for territorial restructuring. This strategy leads to radicalised group claims and increased democratic fragility. The Romanian case highlights the imperative to take seriously non-secessionist claims as a separate category of study and international norm-setting.

Notes

I am thankful to Philippe Roseberry for research assistance; and to István Horváth, Michael Keating and Sherrill Stroschein for comments on earlier drafts.

¹ James Hughes talks in this volume about the ‘double inconsistency’ in the self-interested ways in which states and international actors (Russia and the EU in particular) used ‘Kosovo’ strategically toward diverse ends.

² As Philippe Roseberry argues in this collection, the Court established a very high standard for an internationally recognisable session—by evaluating the Kosovo UDI against the backdrop of the type of violence that the Kosovars had suffered.

³ ‘Saying No to Kosovo Independence’, BBC News, 5 March 2008, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7265249.stm, accessed 1 May 2013; Inter Press Service (IPS), ‘Romania Schizophrenic over Independence’, 18 February 2011, available at: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews = 41241, accessed 1 May 2013.

⁴ Wallachia is a historic name for the southern province that includes Muntenia and Oltenia.

⁵ The latter was a former province of the Ottoman Empire.

⁶ The constraining influence of Hungarian kin-state politics on neighbouring state elites' responses to ethnically framed territorial claims is discussed in this collection in Lezová's contribution on Slovakia.

⁷ On differences between the traditional top-down model and the ‘new regionalisms’ that emerged in Europe in the framework of EU integration, see Keating (2008, 2009).

⁸ Communes (comună in Romanian) are low-level rural administrative units in Romania.

⁹ The Pro Europe League included regionalisation in its statute in 1990. In 1992, a provocative article by Transylvanian-Romanian intellectual Alexandru Cistelecan expressed the view that Transylvania had failed as a province of Romania, triggering lively debate in the Romanian press (Cistelecan 1992, p. 2).

¹⁰ Ráduly later became mayor of Miercurea-Ciuc, the county capital of Harghita county, which is one of the two Hungarian-majority counties in the Szekler region. The reference to 1918 is to the creation of Greater Romania after the end of World War I, when Transylvania became part of the modern Romanian state for the first time.

¹¹ ‘New Political Party to be Set Up in Transylvania’, RFE/RL, 5, 164, Part II, 29 August 2001, available at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/balkanhr/message/2719, accessed 24 January 2012.

¹² The only event of public violence associated with Hungarian minority claims occurred in June 1990 in Tîrgu-Mureş, and it emerged in the context of a peaceful demonstration that turned into a street fight (Mungiu Pippidi 1999).

¹³ Thomas Benedikter, ‘Europe's Working Regional Autonomies’, Bolzano/Bozen, 19 January 2008, available at: http://www.gfbv.it/3dossier/eu-min/work-autonomy.html, accessed 24 January 2012.

¹⁴ In this collection, Ker-Lindsay argues that the situation in Kosovo could also have taken a different course, had the international community shown more interest early on in the Kosovars' initially non-secessionist claims for internal self-determination in Serbia.

¹⁵ Articles 1 and 4 of the Romanian constitution, available at: http://domino.kappa.ro/guvern/constitutia-e.html. Constitutional amendments in 2003 left this statement unchanged.

¹⁶ Author's personal communications with Hungarian politicians during summer 2011.

¹⁷ Although ethnic outbidding is often assumed to be an inherent attribute of ethnic parties, Stroschein demonstrates, through an analysis of the voting patterns of Hungarians in Romanian local elections, that it is ‘more likely to be a luxury of enclave regions, where fragmentation will not involve a loss of power to the other ethnic group’ (Stroschein 2011, p. 190).

¹⁸ To˝kés is a Protestant bishop who emerged as a political leader during the December 1989 revolution in Romania, which began in the western city of Timişoara, in the Banat region, and was triggered by a spontaneous demonstration of To˝kés' supporters who formed a ‘human chain’ around his house to stop the secret police from arresting him. To˝kés held the office of RMDSZ honorary president, and in 2009 won a seat in the European Parliament. He identifies himself as a Szekler in the framework of the Szekler autonomist movement.

¹⁹ See http://www.neppart.eu/gyorstalpalo-az-erdelyi-magyar-neppartrol.html, accessed 3 May 2013.

²⁰ For the official press release, see ‘Comunicat de presă (12 februarie 2007) REF: Declaraţie de presă comună susţinută de preşedintele României, Traian Băsescu şi presedintele Republicii Ungare, László Sólyom’, available at: http://www.presidency.ro/pdf/date/8471_ro.pdf, accessed 24 January 2012.

²¹ ‘Referendum for the Establishment of a Szekler Region, in Covasna County: The County Council has Set the Date for March 11, 2012’, Adevărul, 31 October 2011, available at: http://www.adevarul.ro/actualitate/politica/web-politic-referendum-tinut-secuiesc-covasna-cj_0_582542231.html, accessed 1 December 2011.

²² George Rădulescu, ‘VIDEO Kelemen Hunor, preşedintele UDMR: “Autonomia nu atinge integritatea teritorială”’, Adevărul, 11 January 2012, available at: http://www.adevarul.ro/la_masa_adevarului/la_masa_adevarului-kelemen_hunor-george_radulescu_0_625737941.html, accessed 24 January 2012.

²³ Conversation with István Horváth, PhD, Director of the Research Center for Interethnic Relations, Cluj, 9 November 2011.

²⁴ Regarding Romanian fears about Hungarians' ‘dual identity’, see Craiutu (1995).

²⁵ The significance of social trust for the long-term survival of democracy emphasised also by Mill (1972).