Nation-Building and Identity in the Post-Soviet Space: New Tools and Approaches by Rico Isaacs & Abel Polese

Author:Rico Isaacs & Abel Polese [Isaacs, Rico & Polese, Abel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Ideologies, Nationalism & Patriotism
ISBN: 9780367281359
Google: 2Tz7CwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 036728135X
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-04-14T03:06:52.707504+00:00

Legal Status and Definitions: Why They Matter

The relationship between language and political power is reflected not only on the structural level in Georgia (that is, the governmental structure of the state, including the Constitution or the various pieces of legislation produced by governing bodies); rather, one comes to see a definite disjunction between state rhetoric, legislation and the actual situation faced by Georgia’s minority groups – in this case, ethnic Azeris – ’on the ground.’ While the Georgian state does broadly comply with international rules and regulations regarding minority rights, the extent of this compliance is limited, most often existing only as ink on paper. One important cause of the state’s inability or failure to implement existing legislation regarding the protection of minority rights stems from the lack of specific legal definitions regarding minorities in Georgia.

A state must first produce official definitions of what constitutes a particular type of ‘minority,’ which groups present on the country’s territory fall under this or that definition, and which rights and responsibilities are afforded to which group before the state can enforce legislation concerning said minority groups. Such legal labels matter because they impact the nature of the relationship between the state (that is, a country’s governing body) and the group in question. Whether or not a state considers a particular group of people to be more than a numerical minority often impacts the types of policies a state implements regarding treatment of non-titulars and the types of rights afforded them. Migrants, for example, as a type of minority, are often considered to be ‘guests’ on a republic’s territory and are therefore faced with different sets of rights and responsibilities than, say, an indigenous group of people having lived on a particular territory prior to the drawing of contemporary state borders (de Varennes 1996: 311). A minority group made up of migrants from another territory is often expected to learn the titular language of the host state, for example, without immediately being afforded special language-related rights intended to promote the use of a non-titular language. That said, most states provide migrants or immigrants with tolerance-oriented language rights, meaning that individuals are free to use whichever language they prefer within the private sphere, but not necessarily within the public (or ‘administrative’) sphere (Kymlicka and Patten 2003: 3–21, May 2011: 265–89). Georgia’s ethnic Azeri population is not made up of immigrants, however, as the majority of Georgia’s Azeris were born and raised in Georgia. Choosing the proper label for this group is necessary in order to mediate the relationship between this group and the Georgian state. This is necessary in order to ascertain the state’s responsibilities with regard to its largest minority group, the Azeris.

If the state decides to acknowledge a particular group of people as a national minority, diaspora, or indigenous group, for example, then the state, based upon its own domestic laws as well as international agreements, de facto acknowledges its obligations and responsibilities with regard to the group in question. The types of

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