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ABSTRACT
This work is a study on the patterns of managing ethnic relations in Serbia and Latvia. It aims at enhancing the cross-regional exchange of knowledge between the Western Balkans and the Baltic States. This study demonstrates that as the bond between geopolitics and ethnopolitics grows more powerful, the liberalization of minority policies would become less feasible within a state. It also hints that the intersection between geopolitics and ethnopolitics should not be perceived as ‘fixed’ but it can be subject to fluctuations and readjustments.
Notes
1 http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/enlargement_process/accession_process/criteria/index_en.htm (accessed on 14 November 2018).
2 The bulk of this piece was completed before the formation of the new government after the Latvian parliamentary elections of October 2018.
3 This piece casts its focus on: (a) Serbia's most ethnically diverse region, the autonomous province of Vojvodina (); (b) the largest and politically organized minority group, the ethnic Hungarians (251%, 136% or 13% of Vojvodina's population in 2011).
4 I refer to ‘ethnic Russians’ on the basis that Russia is the state that functions as the external homeland of Latvia's Russophones. 542,469 ethnic Russians are estimated to reside in Latvia (July 2018 figure).
5 SNS garnered 48.25% of the vote in the parliamentary elections of 2016 and Aleksandar Vučić 55.06% of the vote in the presidential elections of 2017.
6 United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1244 (including annexes 1 and 2), Adopted by the Security Council at its 4011th meeting on June 10th, 1999, Distr. GENERAL, S/RES/1244 (1999).
7 https://news.err.ee/635146/latvia-s-saskana-party-ditches-agreement-with-putin-s-united-russia (accessed on 15 October 2018).
8 Harmony secured 19.80% of the vote and emerged as the strongest party in the October 2018 elections. This had also been the case in the 2011 and the 2014 elections, where it garnered 28.36% and 23% of the vote respectively.
9 Throughout the period between 1995 and 2018, 145,941 persons (including 14,533 underage children) were granted the citizenship of Latvia. For these figures, see: http://www.pmlp.gov.lv/en/assets/documents/naturalizija33/Naturaliz%C4%81cija%20_j%C5%ABlijs2018/Stat01_2018_angl.pdf (accessed on 10 November 2018). Nevertheless, 237,719 Russian-speakers remained stateless by July 2017. For this figure, see: http://www.pmlp.gov.lv/lv/assets/documents/Iedzivotaju%20re%C4%A3istrs/010717/ISVP_Latvija_pec_VPD.pdf (accessed on 11 October 2018).
10 VMSZ's concept of tripartite autonomy comprises the areas of personal autonomy, territorial autonomy, and local self-administration. On this issue, see: VMSZ, Proposal for an agreement on the self-organization of Hungarians in Vojvodina (The concept of the Alliance of Hungarians in Vojvodina), Novi Sad, January 18th, 1996.
11 The party chairman, István Pásztor, currently serves as president at the executive council of the provincial assembly.
12 Interviews with: VMSZ MP at the Serbian parliament (30 November 2018, Belgrade); Vice secretary on national minorities at the autonomous assembly of Vojvodina (29 November 2018, Novi Sad).
13 For this statement, see: http://www.vesti-online.com/Vesti/Srbija/377296/Pastor-Jobiku-Ne-vrsljaj-po-Vojvodini (accessed on 20 November 2018). Interview with Vice secretary on national minorities at the autonomous assembly of Vojvodina (29 November 2018).
14 Interviews with two research experts in information warfare at the National Defence Academy of Latvia, (7 July 2017).
15 The result of the referendum was decisively against the motion to recognize Russian as the second state language (74.08%) but reflected upon the ethno-cultural divisions within the society and hinted that the ethnic Russian population did not subscribe to the recognition of Latvian as the sole state language.
16 Article 6 of the statute on the autonomy of Vojvodina restored the collective status of the ethnic Croat minority in regard to the areas of education and public information in the Croat language. On this issue, see: ’Statut autonomne pokrajine Vojvodine’ in Službeni list AP Vojvodine, br. 20/2014.
17 The Serbian law on the use of minority languages is also consistent with Articles 8.1 (education), 9.1 (judicial authorities), 10.1–2 (public administration), 11.1 (media) and 14 of the European charter for regional or minority languages, (COE, Citation1995).
18 Two noteworthy examples are the statute's authorization for: (a) the election of the national minorities’ councils at the provincial assembly; (b) the national minorities to cooperate with legal subjects based in their kin states as well as the ban on ethnic discrimination and the propagation of ethnic hatred. Similar provisions were in force as part of the Vojvodinian Constitution (1974) (Articles 4 and 194) and its complementary legislation.
19 Interviews with: two ethnic Russian journalists and political activists, (7 July 2017, Riga); two Professors in Latvian party politics at Latvia University, (28 July 2017, Riga); a National Alliance representative at the Latvian Saeima and the European parliament, (13 October 2017, Riga); https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/education/legality-of-latvias-education-reform-to-be-considered-by-constitutional-court.a277041/ (accessed on 10 October 2018).
20 Interviews with sociologist at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad (26 November 2018); advisor at the NDNV-Novi Sad, media NGO (1 December 2018).
21 Declaration of the 3rd congress of the Vojvodinian SPS committee (issued in January 1996) in Socijalistička Partija Srbije- Pokrajinski Odbor SPSa u Vojvodini, ‘Vojvodina 2000. Korak u novi vek- izveštaj’, Novi Sad 1996, p. 2.
22 On these issues, see: http://www.dss.rs/dss-protiv-trajnog-naseljavanja-migranata-u-pancevo/; http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/2660/izbori-2017/2679047/seselj-ogradom-ili-minskim-poljem-smanjiti-priliv-migranata.html (accessed on 12 October 2018).
23 SRS garnered 8.10% and DSS/Dveri 5.04% of the vote in the parliamentary elections of April 2016.
24 This party had been in almost every government coalition since 1995: first as TB and LNNK separately, then also after their merge into TB/LNNK.
25 https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2016/11/tomislav-nikolic-serbia-won-align-east-west-161124105054362.html (accessed on 19 November 2018).
26 Economic transactions with EU member states amounted to 63.07% of the total external trade between 2017 and 2018. On this issue, see: http://www.stat.gov.rs/en-us/vesti/20180928-spoljnotrgovinska-robna-razmena-avgust-2018/?s=1701 (accessed on 19 November 2018). Meanwhile, Serbia's fragmented exports to Russia cannot counterbalance its imports from that country.
27 Interviews with former Serbian Minister of National Defence (20 November 2018, Belgrade); advisor at the NDNV-Novi Sad, media-NGO (1 December 2018).
28 https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/440384-vucic-kosovo-serbia-tensions/ (accessed on 12 October 2018).
29 Ibid.
30 Interview with a VMSZ MP at the Serbian parliament, (30 November 2018).
31 Interview with the Secretary general of the Latvian National Alliance, (13 October 2017, Riga).
32 Interview with a National Alliance representative at the Latvian Saeima and the European parliament, (13 October 2017, Riga).
33 Interview with the Secretary general of the Latvian National Alliance, (13 October 2017, Riga).
34 Interview with a National Alliance representative at the Latvian Saeima and the European parliament, (13 October 2017, Riga).
35 Interviews with senior researcher at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung-Serbia, (30 November 2018, Belgrade) and a team of researchers at the Novi Sad School of Journalism (28 November 2018).
36 One more opinion poll, conducted by the Institute for European Affairs-Belgrade (21–24 March 2018), found out that the majority of the respondents regarded Hungary as one of Serbia's friendliest neighbours. On this issue, see: http://iea.rs/2018/05/10/rezultati-istrazivanja-javnog-mnjenja-o-evropskoj-uniji/ (accessed on 13 November 2018).
37 On the comparable trends in Estonia during the same period, see: Aalto (Citation2003, p. 26).
38 This wave of Europhilia declined as result of the widespread conviction, among the ethnic Russian community, that the EU's soft power was not enough. On this issue, see: Cianetti and Nakai (Citation2017, p. 276); Interviews with one affiliate of the Harmony's youth organization (27 July 2017, Riga) and with two ethnic Russian journalists and political activists (7 July 2017, Riga).
39 In Latgale, the polarization seems more evident with 54% of the polled sample (2015–2016) declaring their belonging to Europe and a percentage of 40.08 denying it (Berzina, Citation2016, p. 26; FACTUM, Citation2015). Moreover, 43.01% among the ethnic Russian respondents reiterated their identification with Europe and an additional 84.03% with Latvia (Berzina, Citation2016, p. 27).
40 Interview with the administrator of a local NGO (23 October 2017, Daugavpils).