This thesis provides an institutional explanation for the peaceful solution of the conflict between the Moldovan state and its small Gagauz minority in the period from 1988 to 1995. The central argument is that different institutional arrangements during this time had a direct effect on the Moldovan state’s capacity to bring about autonomy for the Gagauz. I show how Gagauz leaders, conditioned by the territorial-based structures of the Soviet Union, mobilized a political movement to push for the creation of an autonomous republic, and how this preference for autonomy remained the consistent demand of the Gagauz throughout the early years of post-communist transition. This finding supports the contention that Gagauz preferences cannot be used to explain the rich variation in political outcomes during this period. I assert that the critical changes were essentially institutional: new electoral laws; revised parliamentary rules and procedures; and a complete rewriting of Moldova’s constitution. These innovations were crucial in enabling the inclusive-minded majority in the Moldovan parliament to overcome the power of nationalist veto players by increasing the majority’s control of the legislative agenda. The importance of these institutional factors is examined by careful analysis of the different stages of the Moldovan parliament’s accommodation of the Gagauz: from separatism and stalemate to compromise. Furthermore, I reassert the central role of institutional arrangements by discounting the external influence of Turkey as a patron state on the successful negotiations between Moldova and the Gagauz. Using previously unresearched archival material, unstructured interviews with many of the key actors, and local media reporting, this thesis challenges existing accounts of the Gagauz conflict in Moldova. These accounts assert that either the Gagauz reaction to titular nationalism or the shifting preferences of strategic-thinking elites was the key causal factor of the political outcomes observed during this period. In contrast, this thesis shows that institutional design played a decisive role in the resolution of this conflict. The findings of this research offer useful lessons for other ethnically-divided states with mobilized minorities.

The topic of this thesis is a comparation of separatist tendencies of Transnistria in Moldova with Abkhazia in Georgia in the post-Soviet space. From the point of view of separatism in these de facto government departments the focus of this work is not only on the current sate and development. Motives and historical traumas are shown and reflected in today's context because understanding of history is the key for present explanation. It seems that the situation in both areas is similar, but explanations and reasons for secession are in some points different. However, comparation and explanation of the different aspects of the development is the basis to understand the past, present and future state in Transnistria and Abkhazia not only in terms of separatism, but also locally-political, geo-political and socio- economic progress or stagnation. Key words: Moldova, Transnistira, Gruzia, Abkhazia, separatism, Russia, Soviet Union, soviet heritage, European Union, secession

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Today, political scientists working with international organizations seek to resolve internal conflicts in Bosnia- Herzegovina, Cyprus, and Kashmir. To solve such crises, political scientists have mostly tried to apply domestic comparative politics approaches. These techniques emphasize agreements among internal actors and have not been successful in most cases. In the case of the Transdniestrian conflict in the Republic of Moldova, mediators have found it difficult to achieve internal agreement because external factors also have played a significant role during the conflict. Therefore, even if an internal agreement is achieved, it will remain fragile due to the vulnerable geographic location of the Republic of Moldova and to the limited state capacity to counter influential external actors. For the purpose of solving the Transdniestrian conflict in the long run, this thesis analyzes the possibilities of creating regional complex interdependence around the Republic of Moldova, which would strengthen an internal agreement to resolve the conflict. Regional complex interdependence inter-connects the countries interested in the region around the Republic of Moldova: Romania, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. This solution presumes external and internal interconnections based on the complex interdependence theory of neo-liberalism. The main potential drawback is that any asymmetrical dependencies in the initial stage of cooperation will imbalance the proposed complex interdependence causing unilateral dependence (most likely on Russia) leading other actors to take countermeasures. In fact, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as a neutral party has been being a legal umbrella for mediation since all parties consider it an appropriate organization for the negotiations. Nevertheless, creating such an arrangement requires an initial role of the United States of America and the European Union to balance Russian influence until the region becomes interdependent. At that moment, the continuation of the Transdniestrian conflict will become irrelevant because the pre-conditions for conflict will be eliminated. / Major, Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Moldova

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis analyses the causes and evolution of the conflict in the Republic of Moldova and capabilities of three conflict-regulating mechanisms to facilitate the final political solution of this conflict. The leading cause of the conflict is the competition among post-Soviet politicians, fighting over the division of the Soviet state and redistribution of politico-economic benefits. In their fight for power, the elites mobilized instrumental and primordial grievances of the population, thus giving an ethnic aspect to the confrontation. As an important intervening variable for the conflict escalation into a military confrontation is Russian interest in maintaining politico-economic and military domination over the region. Over time, all ethnic causes had been eliminated, thus creating the necessary conditions for the final political settlement of the conflict. However, the status quo, created around this conflict, suits the politico-economic interests of the Transdniestrian elites, and reinforced by the Russian interest in keeping the region under its influence, is encouraging them to promote a radical position toward the process of negotiations and to demand anything but independence, a fact that cannot be accepted by the legal Moldovan Government. In such circumstances, the final solution depends on the attitudes of the external players. However, the international players are dispersed over the methods of resolving this conflict, thus reinforcing the deadlock situation in the process of negotiation. This thesis argues that under the current circumstances, none of the conflict regulating mechanism, partition, confederation and federation will solve that particular conflict. However, the federalism has the most potential to serve as a tool for unification and conflict-resolution, but only if the international community and internal players will promote democratic values, rule of law and free marked orientation in the region, will reduce the benefits of the status quo situation and, finally, will offer substantial politico-economic and cultural autonomy combined with fair representation at the central level to the Transdniestrian region. / Lieutenant Colonel, Armed Forces of the Republic of Moldova

Ce travail interroge la place du français en Moldavie avant et après son indépendance en 1991, dans des contextes d’héritage historique, de tradition d’enseignement et de mondialisation. Il examine l’existence d’une politique linguistique à l’égard du français et le positionnement des citoyens par rapport à cette politique. Les acteurs de la francophonie, qu’ils soient endogènes ou exogènes (comme les institutions de la Francophonie) et leur action à l’égard du français font partie du champ de recherche. Cette étude s'appuie sur un corpus constitué de documents d’archives (1975-2010), d’une enquête sociolinguistique (2009), de textes réglementaires récents (2011-2013), d’entretiens avec des acteurs du système éducatif et de la francophonie en Moldavie, d’articles de médias et de publications statistiques. Le croisement des analyses de discours socio-éducatifs et des changements de perspective socio-économique permet d’obtenir des éléments éclairant les problématiques abordées. / This work looks at the place of the French language in Moldova before and after its independence in 1991, from the perspective of the historical heritage, teaching traditions and globalization. It examines the existence of a language policy with respect to the French language and the positioning of the citizens in relation to this policy. The actors of the French-speaking world, whether endogenous or exogenous (such as the institutions of the French-speaking world - Francophonie) and their action with respect to the French language are part of the research field. This study is based on a corpus made up of archive documents (1975-2010), a sociolinguistic survey (2009), recent regulations (2011-2013), interviews with actors in the education system and the French-speaking world (Francophonie) in Moldova, media articles and statistical publications. Cross-referencing the analysis of socio-educational discourses and changes in the socio-economic perspective provides information that helps clarify the issues addressed.

Le conflit civil moldave entre 1989 et 1992 a laissé un pays et une population divisés entre le fleuve Dniestr/Nistru. Malgré la victoire de la Pridnestrovie (RMP) dans sa guerre d’indépendance, elle n’a pas atteint son objectif de devenir un Etat reconnu. L’Accord de cessez-le-feu de 1992 qui a mis officiellement fin à la guerre a renforcé la séparation de la RMP par la création d’une zone tampon et l’établissement des forces de maintien de la paix. Comme convenu dans cet accord, la fin du nouveau statu quo et donc la résolution finale du conflit devraient passer obligatoirement par la détermination d’un nouveau statut politique pour la RMP. Faute d’avoir réussi à déterminer un statut officiel, le conflit est resté gelé. Lors de la période d’après-guerre, l’équilibre des pouvoirs a favorisé la RMP sur le plan économique, énergétique et sécuritaire, la plaçant dans une position de force vis-à-vis de la Moldavie. Cependant, puisqu’une reconnaissance étatique n’a jamais été accordée à la RMP, cette dernière a donc hérité d’un déficit symbolique que seule la Moldavie pouvait lui octroyer par la reconnaissance. Une politique active de reconnaissance envers la RMP entre 1994 et 1998 a été le facteur déterminant dans la transformation du conflit, conduisant à la signature de trois « grands accords ». Le célèbre Mémorandum de Moscou de 1997 a souligné ce processus transformatif au travers duquel les deux « opposants » se sont dès lors considérés comme « partenaires » au sein des négociations. Au cours de l’année 1998, Chisinau et Tiraspol se sont engagées sur le chemin de la paix en adoptant des mesures de confiance et de sécurité avec l’Accord d’Odessa / The Moldovan civil conflict between 1989 and 1992 left the country and the people permanently divided between the banks to the Dniestr/Nistru River. Despite Pridnestrovia’s (PMR) victory in its war of independence, it would not achieve its goal of being a recognized state. The ceasefire agreement of 1992 officially put an end to the war and solidified Prinestrovia’s separation through the creation of a security zone and the establishement of peacekeeping forces. Furthermore, the resolution of the conflict and the end of the new status quo had to be synchronized with the accordance of a new political status for the PMR. As an official status was never determined, the conflict has remained frozen. During the post-war period, the balance of power favored the PMR from an economic, energy and security perspective, providing it with major leverage over Moldova. However, given that the PMR was never attributed statehood meant that it inherited a symbolic deficit because only Moldova could provide it with recognition. Moldova’s policy of recognition towards the PMR between 1994 and 1998 would be the determing factor in the transformation of the conflict, leading to the signing of three “major accords”. The historic Moscow Memorandum of 1997 highlighted this transformative process by which the two “opponants” considered eachother as “partners” within the negociation process. By 1998, Chisinau and Tiraspol embarked upon the path of confidence building and security measures with the Odessa Accord of 1998

This thesis comparatively analyses dilemmas arising from the unresolved Georgian-Abkhazian and Moldovan-Transnistrian conflicts. The many existing differences in the nature and dynamics of each conflict point to a sui generis situation, yet, many similarities also exist, including Soviet era legacies. The research premise is based on very considerable resourcing being dedicated to the resolution of these conflicts since their inception, yet no significant conflict transformation (Abkhazia has Russian recognition) has occurred, let alone peace. Given the mandate from the OSCE, EU and UN, the purpose of the thesis is to analyse their involvement. While evidence – local vested interests and strategic interests – illustrates the obvious obstructions, the thesis focuses on the IOs and asks why no tangible successes were achieved. This is done by critically analysing their performance, by assuming that success is often overlooked and by identifying a range of misperceptions. Therefore, by considering conflict transformation and engaging in analysis of many sources, including documents and about five-dozen interviews, the thesis reappraises the ethno-national origins, the geopolitical dimension and the entrenched conflicting party positions in the context of pan-European actors' responses. The analyses of the comparative peace processes illuminate the IOs' own challenges in reaching consensus as well as on the conflicting parties' competing narratives. Answering the question of what to produce first – a political solution to improve societal conditions, or the pursuing exercise of confidence-building measures (CBMs) to settle the status question – is part of the objective. I argue that a typology of success and failure more comprehensively explains IO performance between 1992 and the EU's Vilnius Summit in 2013.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI) are discriminated and subjected to violence in societies across the world, and ensuring their rights is on the international agenda. On a European level, nationalism, state-led persecution and rhetoric of hate have slowed down the process of ensuring human rights for LGBTI people particularly in Eastern Europe, where they are subject to violence, discrimination and hostility. One type of hostility targeting LGBTI people is hate speech. As literature has shown, hate speech can have harmful effects on its targets. Additionally, with the increased accessibility and use of the Internet and social media networks, hate speech has become more widespread and new challenges have appeared. Our research objective has addressed the gap identified by Brown (2018); to contribute to the research on hate speech and its harmful effects in general, comparing the effects of online and offline hate speech in particular. Additionally, by comparing the findings from Moldova and Ukraine, we have investigated if the context in which the hate speech is produced has any effect on the harmful effects experienced by targets. The research was conducted using a mixed method with a parallel convergent design, giving equal priority to qualitative and quantitative data. Data collection took place in Moldova (Chisinau) and in Ukraine (Kyiv) during Pride in the respective countries. Due to the nature of this research, results are not representative, and conclusions drawn can neither be applied to the entire LGBTI community in Moldova nor in Ukraine. Conclusions can, however, provide interesting insights for further research. Constitutive and consequential harms from online and offline hate speech are experienced by the LGBTI activists and community in both countries. In terms of constitutive harms, LGBTI community have suffered from harms like negative impact on self-esteem, silencing, psychological distress and restrictions on freedom of movement and association. Experienced consequential harms were negative stereotyping, physical violence and normalization of discrimination. Further, this research indicated that there is a difference in terms of harms caused by online and offline hate speech when it comes to the constitutive harms, as the harms from offline hate speech seemed to be experienced to a larger extent. Comparing results from Moldova and Ukraine, it can be concluded that the content of hate speech and harmful effects of hate speech are experienced differently depending on the context in which hate speech was produced. In general, hate speech in Ukraine seemed to be more violent and aggressive while in Moldova it was more related to the structural violence.

Die Artikel dieses Bandes wollen anhand ausgewählter Grenzräume und Themen einen Beitrag zur Darstellung der Situation an der neuen östlichen Außengrenze der EU leisten. Im Zentrum steht dabei der Grenzraum zwischen der Republik Moldau und Rumänien. Analysen der geopolitischen, ethnischen und nationalen sowie ökonomischen und sozialen Probleme dieser Länder sollen die Rahmenbedingungen für das Leben der Bevölkerung in diesem Grenzraum verdeutlichen. Diese Probleme wirken sich auf den Alltag der Grenzraumbevölkerung, besonders auf ihre grenzüberschreitenden Aktivitäten aus. Politik und Wissenschaft müssen sich gerade auch der Probleme der Grenzräume annehmen, weil in Europa das Bemühen um eine friedliche "Einheit in der Vielfalt" nicht an den Außengrenzen der EU enden kann.

Hans von Aachen, court artist to the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, created a series of small painting called the Allegories on the Long Turkish War. Von Aachen made the Allegories between 1604 and 1606 and Rudolf II kept them bound in a red book in his Kunstkammer. This series selects events and battles from the Long War against the Ottoman Empire, 1593-1606, to create a flattering propagandistic image of the emperor in order to strengthen his support. Rudolf’s brother, Archduke Matthias of Austria, began plotting against the emperor beginning in 1600. By 1606 he was actively usurping Rudolf’s political power. I examine von Aachen’s visual description of imperial power, the alternate history the Allegories present, and the ways they engage with Neo-Platonic theories to convey validity to viewers. In my thesis, I outline the events of the Long War in order to compare them to von Aachen’s portrayals and to understand how he restructures chronological history to convey his message about Rudolf’s rulership. I briefly analyze each painting but I focus primarily on the eighth scene, the Conquest of Székesfehérvár. Sultan Mehmed III sits opposite Rudolf II in dignified defeat in this painting. I investigate the visual treatment of the sultan through the historical interactions between the Ottoman and Holy Roman Empires and propose the political function served by depicting him as a noble enemy. I finally discuss the way von Aachen uses symbols and allegory to convey a potent message and convince the viewer of its validity. Ultimately, these works should be seen as political propaganda used to combat Rudolf’s brother Archduke Matthias’ political takeover and not as Rudolf’s fantastical escapism from his losing battle against his brother. / text