{"id":1911,"date":"2020-05-06T19:01:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T17:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurominority.eu\/?page_id=1911"},"modified":"2020-05-06T19:16:56","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T17:16:56","slug":"nations-states-and-stateless-nations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.eurominority.eu\/index.php\/en\/nations-states-and-stateless-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Nations, states and stateless nations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>

Why talk of \u201cstateless nations\u201d\nrather than \u201cnational minority\u201d? The term \u201cstateless nations\u201d largely\ntranscends that of \u201cminority\u201d which is often very restrictive and perceived in\na derogatory manner. The term \u201cminority\u201d defines a state relative to a\nmajority. However, it does not refer specifically to what it aspires to be,\nthat is to say a minority people with the characteristics of a nation without\nhaving the attributes of a sovereign state. Accordingly, defining the terms\n\u201cnation\u201d and \u201cstateless nation\u201d seems essential.<\/p>

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>

In the beginning, the tribe?<\/h2>
\"\"<\/figure>

\u201cMinority\u201d refers to many terms\nwhich often have political overtones. Whenever one speaks of \u201cminority\u201d, one\noften thinks of tribes and ethnicities. In fact tribe is a type of minority,\nmore specifically qualified as indigenous or first people. Also, these\nminorities can be native or foreign.<\/p>

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>

The nation, a dual concept<\/h2>
\"\"<\/figure>

The nation, for its part, is a\nhuman community having the belief of belonging to the same group. It falls\nwithin defined geographical boundaries. Thus, numerous minorities are defined\nas people or nations. The distinctive characteristics of a nation are language,\nculture, religion, history\u2026 In contrast, certain nations recognise themselves\nwithout being homogenous. In fact, even if language constitutes one of the\ncorner stones of nations, some are multilingual (and respect this fact) or they\nare comprised of distinct religious communities.<\/p>

The Council of Europe tried to find\na consensus definition of the concept of nation. This exercise is complicated\nwhere, according to the languages and the states, this word is perceived\ndifferently. Certain countries use it to define their citizenship, i.e. the\nlegal relationship between citizens and the state. Others use it in the sense\nof a united ethnolinguistic community.<\/p>

In Latin, however, the word \u201cnatio\u201d\nis derived from \u201cnascere\u201d (to be born). It was used in the Middle Ages to\ndescribe membership of a community. In the 18th century, this concept evolved\ninto being related to a community of individuals enjoying equal rights\nindependent of ethnic origin. This concept is very close to the definition of\nthe State-nation or civic nation. In contrast, the notion of the cultural\nnation is, for its part, a concept defining the nation as a homogenous\nethno-linguistic entity.<\/p>

In its conclusions concerning the\ndefinition of the term \u201cnation\u201d, the Council of Europe considers that these two\ndefinitions are \u201conce again valid today\u201d. True, but can we compel a community\nto accept these two definitions? In fact, the text of the Council of Europe\nquotes from Ernest Renan, a Breton author considered to be one of the\ntheoreticians of the nation. \u201c\u2018The Nation\u2019 is a daily plebiscite\u201d. This\nsentence sums up the situation. We cannot force people to live in a state\nwithout their consent and, worse, make them deny their own identity in order to\nbe a citizen of that state, such as the Kurds in Turkey.<\/p>

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>

The state and state-nation<\/h2>
\"\"<\/figure>

The state is a form of political\norganisation, based by nature on the sovereignty of the nation. The state is\nthe setting in which the people or the nations can legislate and vote for their\nown territorial laws. The state-nation characterises a sovereign state\nconstituted objectively or artificially by a desire to live together. We can\ndistinguish between the state-nation and the nation-state. The state-nation can\nenforce a national feeling. France, Greece and Turkey correspond to the\narchetypeal state-nation. Conversely, a group can be recognised as a nation and\nmanifest its desire to live together in establishing a state, which we would\ncall a nation-state.<\/p>

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>

Stateless nations <\/h2>
\"\"<\/figure>

A stateless nation is a\nnon-sovereign nation with no state structures. Its people often live in varying\ndegrees of attachment to their original nation. Thus there exists in all the\nstateless nations feelings of identity that can be qualified as contradictory.<\/p>