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Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural and political geography. Since most borders have been moved and redrawn at one point, a great many countries could theoretically present irredentist claims to their neighbours. However, some states are the subject of potential irredentism from birth. Post-WWI Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Near East had borders carved out by the Allies that left many of the new states in that region unsatisfied due to minority populations and conflicting historical claims. Many of Africa's borders were artificially imposed by European colonial powers. The result split ethnic groups between different countries, such as the Yoruba who are divided among Nigeria, and Benin. In some cases, the irredentist arguing continued well past the Second World War and on to the present day. An area that may be subjected to a potential claim is therefore sometimes called an irredenta. Not all irredentas are involved in actual irredentism.
OriginsThe word was coined in Italy from the phrase Italia irredenta ("unredeemed Italy"). This originally referred to Austro-Hungarian rule over mostly or partly Italian-inhabited territories such as Trentino and Trieste during the 19th and early 20th century. A common way to express a claim to adjacent territories on the grounds of historical or ethnic association is by using the epithet "Greater" before the country name. This conveys the image of national territory at its maximum conceivable extent with the country "proper" at its core. It must be noted that the use of "Greater" does not always convey an irredentistic meaning. For instance, Greater Romania is the common translation given to the Romanian term "Romania Mare", which is the name given between the two World Wars to the Kingdom of Romania. Romania claimed irredenta over Transylvania and Bessarabia after World War I. The term was also used by Germans referring to Greater Germany, a state consisting of pre World War I Germany, actual Austria and the Sudetenland. Constitutional irredentismSome states formalize their irredentist claims by including them in their constitutional documents.
Official territorial claims according to the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Other claimsSpain continues to claim the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, ceded to Britain in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht, and argues its case at the United Nations claiming its territorial integrity is affected. Morocco makes similar claims against Spain over the North African city enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Portugal still holds claim to the territory of Olivenza occupied by Spain since the Napoleonic Wars. Some of the most violent irredentist conflicts of recent times in Europe flared up as a consequence of the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were largely about creating a new political framework of states, each of which would be ethnically and politically homogeneous. The conflict erupted further south with the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo seeking to switch allegiance to the adjoining state of Albania. (See Chazan, 1991, Irredentism and international politics.) Greece claims that the use of the name Republic of Macedonia by its northern neighbor signifies an irredentist claim on the northern province of Macedonia in Greece. Southeast Asia too is another region in which armed irredentist movements have been active for almost a century, due to the Balkanisation of North-East India, Burma and Bangladesh under British colonialism. Most prominent amongst them are the Naga fight for Greater Nagaland, the Chin struggle for a unified Chinland and other self-determinist movements by the ethnic, indigenous peoples of the erstwhile Assam both under the British and post-British Assam under India. Some have alleged irredentism by Armenia in its support of the predominantly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan to gain independence from Azerbaijan.[1] According to a prominent expert on irredentist movements, Thomas Ambrosio, "from 1992 to the cease-fire in 1994 Armenia encountered a highly permissive or tolerant international environment that allowed its annexation of some 15 percent of Azerbaijani territory".[2] Armenia denies its direct involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh War. In view of Nadia Milanova, Nagorno-Karabakh represents a combination of separatism and irredentism.[3] Another case is linked with "The Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement, which presumably has links to the irredentist National Liberation Movement of Southern Azerbaijan" [4] The Syrian Social Nationalist Party, which operates in Lebanon and Syria, works for the unification of most modern states of the Levant and beyond in a single state referred to as Greater Syria. Some Korean nationalists seek to eventually annex the Yanbian autonomous prefecture, particularly in the event of the unification of North and South Korea, however ethnic Koreans living in China increasingly identify themselves as Chinese of Chosun ethnicity[5]. References
See also
bg:??????????? cs:Iredentismus da:Irredentisme de:Irredentismus es:Irredentismo eo:Iredentismo eu:Irredentismo fr:Irrédentisme fur:Iredentisim gl:Irredentismo hr:Iredentizam hu:Irredentizmus it:Irredentismo he:???????? mk:??????????? nl:Irredentisme ja:?????? no:Irredentisme pl:Irredenta pt:Irredentismo ru:??????????? simple:Irredentism sk:Iredentizmus sl:Iredentizem sr:??????????? sh:Iredentizam fi:Irredentismi sv:Irredentism tr:?rredantizm uk:?????????? zh:?????? Source: Wikipedia | The above article is available under the GNU FDL. | Edit this article
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