Citation

Dembińska M. Nations Nationalism 2019; 25(1): 298-317.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/nana.12386

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The 1992-1993 civil wars in Moldova and in Georgia ended with a de facto separation of Transnistria and Abkhazia, respectively. These de facto states are both inhabited by the kin to the 'enemy' across the administrative border: Moldovans and Georgians/Mingrelians. How do the de facto authorities foster a collective identity in support of their claim for legitimacy and statehood? Engaging with Wimmer's taxonomy of boundary-making, this article argues that nation-building involves not only expansion but also, simultaneously, contraction. Transnistria constructs a higher-level identity category and co-opts and contracts the Moldovan category, separating it into 'our' and Bessarabian Moldovans in order to incorporate the former into the Transnistrian people. In Abkhazia, the nation-building project establishes the Abkhazs as the titular nation allowing, however, for the construction of an Abkhazian people that would include minorities, with Gal/i Georgians said to be Mingrelians, distinct from Georgians. These cases show that elites combine different ethnic boundary-making strategies in order to implement their favoured identity project and to legitimize the claimed statehood.

Language: en

Keywords

Abkhazia; boundary-making strategies; de facto states; nation-building; Transnistria