Suchergebnisse

Since 1992 Russia is on the way to reform and decentralizing ist government, which means the differentiation of power and property, between the state and society, the center and regions. The country was able to keep its area, but not a peaceful process of changes. Two extreme conflicts developed during the last period of time in this area, OSETIN-INGUSSIAN and CHECHENIAN conflicts, which grew up into an armed conflict, both were settled down, but no termination by peaceful political settlement was possible. The danger of a widespread violence is still a current emergency. All these events are occuring in the backgrouud of the massive political crisis, which developed in Moscow in the fall of 1993, and a later socieconomic crisis, causing a new wave of inflation aud destabilization of existing regime in August 1998. (SOI : MO: S. 63f.)

The Caspian region is one from the most oil- and gas-rich regions in the world. The estimated oil and gas reserves are believed to be around 16 billion tons. The geological location of the most perspective oil and gas fields at the Caspian shelf determines the policy of littoral states concerning the legal status of the basin which has not been solved yet. Oil- and gas-rich Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have proposed the division of the Caspian Sea into five sectors according to terrestrial border points. The Russian Federation and Iran (without real oil and gas perspectives in their believed sectors) are opposing this attitude and are insisting on a common use of the Caspian Sea in condominium. As a matter of fact, the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons is going on, controlled by international oil and gas companies. The main technical problem to solve is the lack of transportation opportunities, as the construction of new pipelines from the region so as to access world markets is needed. Russia and Turkey are those most active in this question, followed by Georgia and Iran. The proposed oil pipelines through Russian or Georgian territories are to be terminated at Black Sea ports from where oil should be transported by supertankers, passing thus the Bosporus - Dardanelles Straits and in a case of accident then jeopardising 12 millions of inhabitants of Istanbul. Therefore and also from political reasons Turkey has proposed to build up a pipeline to Turkish Mediterranean oil terminal of Ceyhan. The Turkish position is backed by the USA looking for cutting of the Russian influence in the Caspian Region. Due to technical and political reasons, it seems the most probable that all of the three proposed routes for oil will be constructed in ten years, if the output of oil will be as high as it is expected today. (SOI : MO: S. 307)

A squeamish Kurdish problem has not been solved yet. At time this transtate and ethnic conflict with international dimension was connected with arresting and deportation of PKK's leader Öcalan. Turkish authorities have been fighting the PKK's rebels at south-eastern Turkey and northern Iraq and especially civil population have suffered from these fights. Most of Turkish authorities knows that peaceful solution of the Kurdish problem should improve an image of Turkey abroad, for example a chance of Turkey to become a full-fledged member of EU. ... Kurds are often described as "stateless nation", "people without country", they are marked like the biggest stateless ethnic group of the countries of the Middle East. ... They are wide diffused in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, but none of these countries they dominated in. They are a divided population even in Turkey: some of them were assimilated with Turkish society up to unconsciousness of individual ethnic awareness. Some of Kurdish groups from Turkey and other states have become political and they want autonomy. ... Previous Prime minister T. Ciller shortly mentioned about possibility of Kurdish community in Turkey to take a "Baskit model" of regional autonomy in autumn 1993. (SOI : MO: S. 35)

The Chechnya conflict itself broke out yet during the existence of the USSR - in September 1991. On 11 October 1992. Dudayev announced the state of emergency as a reaction to the mobilization of Russian military forces at the borders with Chechnya. The Russian troops left their positions at the Chechen borders only on 18 November 1992. ... In one year after the outbreak of the war, Moscow's policy on Chechnya (1995) returned to the beginning the necessity. to solve the Chechen prob1em by "Chechen hands" and not by military force. It became the central topic of the election campaign before the elections to the State Duma which took place on 17 December 1995. ... From a short-term point of view, it would be possible to speak about the consequences on the presidential elections in 1996, from a broader point of view it is about the permanent presence of official violence in the Soviet-Russian history of the 20th century which forms the basis of a specific "Russian way". This factor has always influenced the contents, the orientation and the result of all processes (economic, social, spiritual, ethical etc.) that is confirmed by the political events in Russia not only in 1995 but mainly from 1985 up to today. (SOI : MO: S. 79f.)

Eritrea becoming independent, with the consent of Ethiopia, was considered a unique event on a continent that has experienced so many wars about the right to self-rule. However there are elements in Ethiopia's political mosaic that can never accept Eritrea independence. ... From the historical point of view there should be no doubt that the territory of today's Eritrea was a part of Ethiopians' kingdoms. However for more than 60 years since 1890 Eritrea was under the foreign rule. Eritrea was federated to Ethiopia in 1952, but when in 1962 the federation was dissolved and the province was annexed by Haile Selassie, guerrilla war broke out and continued also during the dictatorship of M. H. Mariam (1974-1991). ... He two countries are among the poorest in Africa, but both Ethiopia and Eritrea are reportedly engaged in buying as much arms as their poor economies can afford from countries such as Russian Federation, China, Bulgaria, and the Ukraine. ... Both countries have close military relationships with the United States and Israel who have a strategic interest in keeping them as stable allies close to the Arabian peninsula and bordering Sudan. ... The International community calls for an end to the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The United Nations, the European Union, African leaders and U.S. government have aIl pleaded for restraint and immediate stop of military confrontation. ... In reality, neither side seems interested abandoning the military option for resolving the border issue. (SOI : MO: S. 46-48)

Religion in contemporary Europe has been forced out of politics but religious themes repeatedly return in European politics. The article deals with the question of how the Catholic faith, as a symbol of identification, and the political and social issues conditioned by Catholic faith influence current European policy. Sociological research has indicated a link between identification with the Church and social attitudes, and the influence of religious identification on the approach toward European integration. The key theme of the article is the analysis of religious topics at the political level and the consequences of the struggle of the cross, as well as the resulting influence on political or judicial power in European countries. Using specific examples, it is shown that some of the manifestations of the Catholic faith represent an identification symbol and that religious themes have remained strong. Adapted from the source document.

The survey consists of two parts: 1. Post-election survey within the international comparative study which has been working for several decades under the title Comparative Studies of Electoral Systems (CSES, www.cses.org). In 2016, it was the implementation of Module 4 focused - in addition to standard electoral questions - on issues of redistribution. 2) survey within the frame of the International Social Research Program (ISSP, www.issp.org http://www.issp.org), namely module Role of the Government, implemented in Slovakia for the second time, the first one was in 2008. Both parts have joint socio-demographic identification variables. Post-election survey is focused on broad variety of factors related to electoral decision - the perception of political parties and their leaders, the satisfaction with democracy, evaluation of economic development, and aspects of election campaign. The Role of Government survey is focused on attitudes to government's competences, in general and specifically in relation to other actors - NGOs, private sector, church organizations and alike. Several questions deal with the public views on corruption, responsiveness, tax policies, interest in politics and other.
The survey also includes several questions that in the form of "split ballot" experimentally verify the validity of questions frequently used in the surveys, as well as scales and responses´ alternatives. These so-called "methodological experiments" are included in all data collections conducted within the APVV-14-0527 project, their results will be elaborated in a separate study.