Nation-Building, Ethnicity and Language Politics in Transition Countries Local Government EUROPEAN CENTRE and Public Service FOR Reform Initiative MINORITY ISSUES NATION-BUILDING, ETHNICITY AND LANGUAGE POLITICS IN TRANSITION COUNTRIES LGI Books Edited by FARIMAH DAFTARY AND FRANÇOIS GRIN First edition published by Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative Open Society Institute Nádor utca 11 H–1051 Budapest, Hungary Telephone: (+36 1) 327 3104 Fax: (+36 1) 327 3105 http://lgi.osi.hu Design & Production by Judit Kovács/Createch Ltd. © ECMI, 2003. ECMI retains the copyright of all materials, including all publishing and subsidiary rights. OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE TM and Copyright © 2003 Open Society Institute All rights reserved. The views expressed by the contributors to this book do not refl ect the views of either LGI, ECMI or the editors of the book, but are the sole responsibility of the authors. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system or translated, in any form or by any means, without the permission of the Publisher. ISBN: 963 9419 58 3 ISSN: 1586-1317 Printed in Hungary by Createch Ltd., May 2003 Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI), as one of the programs of the Open Society Institute (OSI), is an international development and grant-giving organization dedicated to the support of good governance in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). LGI seeks to fulfi ll its mission through the initiation of research and support of development and operational activities in the fi elds of decentralization, public policy formation and the reform of public administration. With projects running in countries covering the region between the Czech Republic and Mongolia, LGI seeks to achieve its objectives through: • development of sustainable regional networks of institutions and professionals engaged in policy analysis, reform-oriented training and advocacy; • support and dissemination of in-depth comparative and regionally applicable policy studies tackling local government issues; • support of country-specifi c projects and delivery of technical assistance to the implementation agencies; • assistance to Soros foundations with the development of local government, public administration and/or public policy programs in their countries of the region; • publication of books, studies and discussion papers dealing with the issues of decentralization, public administration, good governance, public policy and les- sons learned from the process of transition in these areas; • development of curricula and organization of training programs dealing with specifi c local government issues; • support of policy centers and think tanks in the region. Apart from its own projects, LGI works closely with a number of other international organizations (Council of Europe, Department for International Development, USAID, UNDP and the World Bank) and co-funds larger regional initiatives aimed at the support of reforms on the subnational level. The Local Government Information Network (LOGIN) and the Fiscal Decentralization Initiative (FDI) are two main examples of this cooperation. For additional information or specifi c publications, please contact: Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative P.O. Box 519 H–1397 Budapest,Hungary E-mail: [email protected] • http://lgi.osi.hu Telephone: (+36 1) 327 3104 • Fax: (+36 1) 327 3105 vii Introduction to the Series Nation-Building, Ethnicity and Language Politics in Transition Countries is the second volume in the ECMI/LGI Series on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues. Th e Series is a joint venture of the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) and the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI). ECMI conducts practice-oriented research, provides information and documentation, and off ers advisory services concerning minority-majority relations in Europe; in addition, it engages in constructive confl ict management through its action-oriented projects, particularly in the Balkans and the Baltics. LGI, a programme of the Open Society Institute, is a think tank specializing in improving governance practices and the provision of public services, especially at the local level. Th e ECMI/LGI Series aims to provide a highly visible and accessible platform for ECMI’s cutting-edge studies. Th ese multi-author works are the result of the Centre’s coop- erative research projects, often lasting a number of years. While these projects were at times supported by conferences and seminars, the resulting books attempt to present a coherent and comprehensive picture of the area under investigation. In this way, the Series avoids the pitfalls of conference publications that often lack a clear focus and structure. Th e Series also enables both ECMI and LGI to strengthen the link between their proactive work across Europe and the development of scholarly work that is geared towards infl uencing policy decisions. Th rough these studies, ECMI and LGI will raise awareness of crosscutting issues related to majority-minority relations and will analyze new issues and practices as they arise. In this way, the Series will advance the practical understanding of new challenges concerning minority issues while at the same time adding a dimension of theoreti- cally based understanding. Th e majority of countries in the former Eastern bloc, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe, feature multiethnic societies. Decentralization and the transition to a free market environment have made this characteristic of nation-states more visible and have raised the claim for a proactive approach toward multiethnic community management. Th e fi rst step for countries that plan to solve ethnic confl icts in a peaceful way is to draft legisla- tion on individual and collective minority rights. Th e second step is to implement these rules and manage the public sector in accordance with the accepted principles. As there is a lack of relevant literature and research in this fi eld, the ECMI/LGI Series intends to fi ll the gap by providing information and ‘food for thought’ for public offi cials and relevant professionals as well as practitioners. It is hoped that the ECMI/LGI publishing partnership will result in a signifi cant addition to the study and practice of emerging policy issues related to minorities. Marc Weller Petra Kovács European Centre for Minority Issues Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative viii Also available in the Series Vol. 1 Kinga Gál (ed.), Minority Governance in Europe (2002) ix Contents List of Contributors xi List of Tables and Figures xv Foreword xvii Introduction Will Kymlicka and François Grin Assessing the Politics of Diversity in Transition Countries 1 Part One One State, One Language? 29 Farimah Daftary and Kinga Gál The 1999 Slovak Minority Language Law: Internal or External Politics? 31 Priit Järve Language Battles in the Baltic States: 1989 to 2002 73 Viktor Stepanenko Identities and Language Politics in Ukraine: The Challenges of Nation-State Building 107 Part Two Titular Language Promotion and Bilingualism 137 Rouben Karapetyan Language Policy in the Republic of Armenia in the Transition Period 139 Yagfar Z. Garipov and Helen M. Faller The Politics of Language Reform and Bilingualism in Tatarstan 163 François Grin Kalmykia: Language Promotion Against All Odds 185 x Part Three Identity, Differentiation and Unifi cation 209 Petra Roter Language Issues in the Context of ‘Slovenian Smallness’ 211 Carmen Kettley Ethnicity, Language and Transition Politics in Romania: The Hungarian Minority in Context 243 Ian F. Hancock Language Corpus and Language Politics: The Case of the Standardization of Romani 267 Index 287 xi List of Contributors Farimah Daftary received her Masters of International Aff airs (M.I.A.) with a specialization in East Central Europe from the School of International and Public Aff airs (SIPA), Columbia University, New York, in 1991. She is currently a Consultant on Minority Protection for the EU Accession Monitoring Program (EUMAP), Open Society Institute–Budapest. From 1997 to 2002, she worked as a Research Associate at the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) in Flensburg, Germany, dealing with various aspects of interethnic relations and minority issues in Europe. Her research con- cerns confl ict management through autonomy and power-sharing arrangements (nota- bly in Corsica and in Macedonia), as well as language issues in transition countries. She has also had a long-standing interest in the development of minority protection regimes of the OSCE and the Council of Europe. Helen M. Faller is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at the University of Michigan. Her dissertation, entitled “Repossessing Kazan: Nation-Building After Socialism in Tatarstan, Russia” examines the social eff ects of Tatarstan’s political movement for sov- ereignty. In particular, it demonstrates that increasing the domains of use of the Tatar language in Kazan has resulted in a divergence in the world views of the linguistic com- munities living there. Her publications so far argue for attention to linguistic practices in shaping the worlds people occupy. In addition to the political economy of languages and nationalisms, Faller’s research interests include post-socialist gender relations and variation in models for creating racial diff erence. Kinga Gál is Chief Advisor to the President of the Hungarian Academy