Page | 4
Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
Center For Social Sciences
Lela Rekhviashvili
Graduate Thesis title:
Recognition of Kosovo and recognition of Abkhazia
Comparative study
Academic Supervisor:
Sergi Kapanadze, International Relations Department
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, TSU
Tbilisi
2008
Abstract
This paper identifies Kosovo recognition criteria and then compares Abkhazian recognition with it. The paper argues that in Kosovo case there exists shared and well defined set of criteria that is justifying the recognition of Kosovo by which the recognizing states went against international law practices. Though, they have argumentation to justify their decision.
The paper shows that Abkhazian recognition and the Abkhazia’s situation on the ground doesn’t repeat the conditions that made Kosovo exceptional, so Abkhazia cannot be regarded as a similar case to Kosovo and the existing criteria of uniqueness cannot be applied to Abkhazia .
Though, the criteria’s are analyzed based on the constructivist theory, that incorporates in it belief of change if the actors start changing their perceptions and understandings. The Kosovo recognition is the case of this kind of a change: the actors started viewing the problem in a similar way and tried to solve the problem by which they created new institution in form of exceptional recognition of ethnic minority. This practice of making international decisions based on the shared understanding and approaching the problem leaves a probability that Abkhazian case has potential to be regarded as “irresolvable” case and get wide international recognition like Kosovo.
Table of contents
I. Introduction ...... 4
I.I Why Kosovo and Abkhazia? ...... 4
II. Literature review...... 6
III. Research Question and Hypothesis...... 8
III.I The aim of the research...... 8
III.II Research questions...... 9
III.III Hypotheses...... 9
IV. Methodology...... 10
V. Theoretical background...... 10
VI. Study...... 12
VI.I Kosovo recognition criteria ...... 12
VI.I.I Materials Used for the Identification of Criteria ...... 13
VI.I.II Identification of Kosovo recognition criteria (Contents)...... 14
VI.I.III Character of Kosovo recognition criteria...... 24
VI.II Criteria of Abkhazia’s recognition...... 26
VI.II.I Materials that will be used ...... 26
VI.II.II Recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Russia ...... 26
VI.II.III Recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Nicaragua...... 29
VI.II.IV Criteria drawn from Russia’s and Nicaragua’s recognition (content)...... 30
VI.II.V Character of Abkhazia’s recognition criteria...... 31
VI.III. Comparison of criteria of Kosovo recognition and Abkhazia’s recognition.....32
VI.III.I Comparison of the contents of criteria ...... 33
VI.III.II Comparison the character of Kosovo’s recognition
with Abkhazia’s Case...... 42
VII. Summary and Conclusions ...... 44
Annexes ...... 47
Bibliography ...... 50
I. Introduction
I.I. Why Kosovo and Abkhazia?
The study object of the thesis is the recognition of Kosovo and Abkhazia, the comparison of the two cases. The why should we take Kosovo recognition and compare Abkhazia’s recognition with it? There are several reasons to argument this focus of interest.
Firstly, the two cases are similar in the face of international law. Kosovo was the first case in the world history when considerable number of states went against the international law practices by recognizing ethic minority. And Abkhazia (as well as south Ossetia) was the case following Kosovo recognition, and was recognize by two UN states. Therefore it is interesting to study if these cases have similar justification for the recognition.
I examined the recent study of international law by Vita Gudeleviciute “Does the Principle of Self- Determination Prevail over the Principle of Territorial Integrity?” This is one of the latest studies which examines, according to international law practices, which of the principles form territorial integrity and self determination prevails in separate cases.
While in cases of colonies, peoples under foreign military occupation, suppression of peoples because of racial and ethnical differences, the principle of self determination prevails over the territorial integrity, and in the first two cases secession is supported, international law doesn’t support secession of ethnic minorities and principle of Territorial Integrity is superior. ” The present international law does not recognize minorities as separate peoples and hence precludes from invoking the principle of self-determination. The principle of territorial integrity prevails”.[1]
Based on this research we can conclude that both Kosovars and Abkhazians, which are ethnic minorities are denied write of external self-determination, this means according to international law and its current practices the two entities cannot be recognized as sovereign states.
Thus not speaking of Abkhazia, Kosovo, as an ordinary unit populated mostly by the ethnic minorities originally did not deserve recognition. But part of international society, the influential Western European states and the United States recognized Kosovo arguing that Kosovo was the “unique case”. Therefore, as Abkhazia was the next case to repeat going against this practice there stands the need of identifying if Abkhazia can also stand in the category of unique case and be judged by the similar criteria as Kosovo was.
Secondly, comparison of Kosovo and Abkhazia has been very actual since the war in Kosovo in 1998-1999. Besides, Since the Kosovo recognition it was frequently discussed that Abkhazia and Ossetia would follow the example as they where the similar cases and they did. Though, no actual scholarly study has been made to study the two cases. Therefore I regard it useful to study the two cases together.
The comparison of the two conflicts has been the subject of lots of academic and nonacademic articles. Georgian Russian and international press were very keen to highlight and discuss thoroughly the differences and similarities of Kosovo and Abkhazian conflicts. Especially during the last months it was actual to discuss the impact of Kosovo recognition on developments in Abkhazia, and the press was full with headlines like: “Abkhazia is not Kosovo” , [2] “The Kosovo precedent”, [3], “Georgian Premier: Kosovo and Abkhazia cannot be comparable” [4], “Kosovo and Abkhazia cannot be “identical” . [5] , and etc.
Making parallels between Kosovo and Abkhazia has also been made by the politicians. It was Russian officials who most frequently referred to Kosovo case while discussing their policies towards Georgian break-away regions. In fact, Russia while recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia directly pointed that after Kosovo recognition, it was normal to recognize Abkhazia as the similar case.
The states that supported the recognition of Kosovo had argumentation behind their decision, that tried to prove that Kosovo was the special case and had legal and moral right to declare independence, unlike all the other similar cases.
On the other hand, there exists number of states that doesn’t support this solution and regard this to be going against international law. They consider this to be a very dangerous precedent for the rest of the separatist movements. Especially Russia along with Serbia opposed this decision. Several months later Russia recognized Abkhazia and Ossetia. Though, Western states those, who recognized Kosovo sovereignty do not recognize Georgian breakup units and are emphasizing territorial integrity.
Thus it seems obvious that the issue of recognition is the political one and is the subject of manipulation from all the sides. That is why it requires research to identify the bases for reasoning the recognition of the units, and it is useful to study criteria of Kosovo recognition; criteria of Abkhazia’s recognition and compare those two.
Here I also want to comment on the issue that South Ossetia’s case goes hand in hand to Abkhazia’s case. But As far as my study is limited in length and scope I wish to concentrate on only one of these two regions to have a possibility to discuss comparison with Kosovo in more details.
II. Literature review
Before discussing aim of my study I will examine what is existing literature that compares Kosovo with Abkhazia and what are the shortcomings in current knowledge on the two cases.
Literature is of course wide about Kosovo and also about Abkhazia. But researches which would compare the two cases are not easy to be found. It is mostly press articles that speak of the link between the fates of two regions. Though there are important scholarly articles that examine the issue. These scholarly articles about Kosovo and Abkhazia mainly discussed historical, legal, and moral context of the war and post war periods. One of the most significant efforts to highlight the important aspects concerning the issue was the debates that were held by Zeyno Baran andThomas de Waal. Thomas de Waal, journalist and Caucasus expert, stresses that “Abkhazia and Kosovo felt imprisoned inside a newly independent state against their will, after the break-up of a communist-era multi-ethnic federation” and argues that they are basically identical and Abkhazia like Kosovo has the right to seek for independence[6]. He can identify no moral differences between the two cases. Thomas de Waal recalls the fact that it was Georgians to start the war, and Georgian nationalism in 1990’s and also after Rose revolution provoked minorities. He argues that only real solution for Abkhazia can be to offer her sovereignty and demand guarantees, that they will built a democratic state and let Georgians return in Abkhazia peacefully. Thus he wants to support independence of Kosovo and also Abkhazia and says that “Kosovo holds out a potential positive model”. (Thomas de Waal)
Zeyno Baran, senior fellow in the Centre for Eurasian Policy, Hudson Institute, brings an argumentation against the statement that Kosovo and Abkhazia are basically similar cases. Zeyno Baran stresses several things: firstly he stresses demographic situation which was principally different in two cases- In Kosovo 90% were Albanians, while in Abkhazia Georgians were tree times larger than Abkhazians and were cleansed during the war; secondly Kosovars had very bad conditions for decades before the war and were imprisoned and had limited political and economic rights, while Abkhazians had all the rights defended; thirdly, he speaks of the role of Russia which encouraged and supported Abkhazians by all means. Zeyno Baran argues that in this case the main criteria should be regional stability and humanitarian needs and in Abkhazian case independence can harm these objectives.
In February 2008 the famous scholar David L. Phillips wrote an article named: “Abkhazia is not Kosovo” were he pays attention at legal and political differences between two territories. UN council resolution 1244 gave space to discuss the status of Kosovo, also the 1974 constitution of Yugoslavia affirmed Kosovo as the republic comparable to other republic of the federation like Croatia, Slovenia and the rest. This gave legal bases for proposing Kosovo independence, while there are no such preconditions for Abkhazia that would give it the legal right to push the independence. The political situation is also different: In contrast with Kosovar political elites, Abkhazians have never considered allowing Georgian refugees to get back and never showed commitment to guarantee the minority rights. Also Russian involvement in Abkhazia in opposite of West’s involvement in Kosovo has never proven to be helpful. That’s why David L. Phillips concludes that “Abkhazia is not Kosovo”. [7]In response to this article George Hewitt (Professor of Caucasian Languages, SOAS, London Univ
ersity) wrote: “Some Thoughts on 'Abkhazia is not Kosovo' by David L. Phillips”. George Hewitt doesn’t make much comparison but he just brings the history of Abkhazia and showes Georgians as hostile people who have always been suppressing Abkhazians and that’s why claims of territorial integrity shouldn’t be considered and Abkhazian sovereignty has to be recognized. He says that today Russia is given chance to influence Abkhazia, but recognition would give Abkhazia chance to develop independently and healthier relation would establish between Georgia- Abkhazia and Georgia – Russia. [8]
Other authors, like Mark Almond , Lecturer in History at Oriel College, Oxford,warned the world that Kosovo recognition would be a bad precedent for the Caucasian states. He stressed the need to develop overall criteria based on which the ethnic conflicts would be dealt and which would take into consideration Western as well as Russian interests. Though, basically he, as well as some other authors, who are arguing that Kosovo would cause blow- up in Abkhazia, did not discuss the similarities and differences between two cases. [9]
As far, as we see, there exist scholarly papers about Kosovo and Abkhazia but there is no academic research made on the issue. Besides, the comparison is done about different aspects- political, legal, historical, moral, and other dimensions. But the events have evolved and today we see the reality that both Kosovo and Abkhazia are both recognized, and though there is a lot of discussion on the issue, as already mentioned there is no study that would discuss the commonalities and differences and the link of recognition of two cases.
It is important to define the aim, why one should regard either difference of similarities. In this case making comparison is significant because we can discuss the policies of recognition based on analyses of the cases; we have to observe the justification of recognition.
III. Research Question and Hypothesis
III. I. The aim of the research
The aim of the presented research is to study international recognition of two Kosovo and Abkhazia. To be more precise, the paper aims to study what makes Kosovo a unique case; and then to examine if Abkhazian case can also have the same dynamics and characteristics that would also make Abkhazia a unique case, give explanation for its recognition and make Abkhazia a similar case to Kosovo deserving and receiving wide recognition.
By making this the work aims to give scientific ground for further discussions of the issue. It identifies basic similarities and differences of the criteria of two cases and gives conclusions and assumptions on the question that actors discussing Kosovo and Abkhazia fate pose so often: should the two cases be treated in a same way.
III. II Research questions
Thus, there stands urgent need of examining firstly:
· What are the criteria based on which Kosovo can be a Unique Case and can be recognised as a state?
And secondly:
· Does Abkhazia also satisfy and fit the criteria of being unique, exceptional case?
This Question has two sub questions:
o Is the similar criteria applied to Abkhazia by existing recognition?