Shishkina Alisa

How Syrian Conflict and Its Migration Crisis Echoed in the Southern Regions of Russia (On the Example of Karachay-Cherkessia)

Although, in comparison to other foreign parties to the Syrian conflict, Russia plays a very modest role in resolving the refugee crisis, the latter echoed in Russia as well. One of the consequences of this crisis is that it brought the Circassian issue back to the domestic political agenda in Russia — first and foremost, at the regional level.

After the start of the civil war in Syria the Circassians — descendants of the Adyghes who were forced to move to the Ottoman Empire in 19th century — began to migrate to Russia. Most of them settled in the Northern Cauca- sus — Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia. However, they faced a lot of problems, especially those Circassians who moved to Karachay- Cherkessia: its authorities do not favor an inflow of Circassian migrants because they fear a change in the balance of the ethnical forces in the region and reflect the attitudes of the Karachai majority. As a result, while in Adygea and Kabardino-Balkaria repatriates from Syria obtain support from the regional 

authorities, in Karachay-Cherkessia they can rely only on the local philanthropists and the Circassian community.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the key factors that hamper Circassians’ repatriation to Karachay-Cherkessia and impede their adaptation to living in the region. The empirical data come from the surveys of the citizens from the four Circassian villages with a significant number of repatriates as well as interviews with the Circassian migrants from Syria who settled in the region.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2019-92-1-167-185

Pages: 167-185

GDP Per Capita, Intensity of Anti-Government Demonstrations and Level of Education (Cross-national Analysis)

The article continues a series of works of the authoring team headed by A.Korotayev about the sources of social and political instability. The research conducted by the authors shows that the previously discovered statistically significant positive correlation between GDP per capita, PPP (in the range up to $20,000), and the intensity of anti-government demonstrations, is partly conditioned by the factors of education level and political regime. At the same time, these factors do not fully explain the identified correlation, indicating the need for further research.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-84-1-127-143

SEDUCED BY REVOLUTION

On the basis of the comparative analysis of the protests that swept countries of the North Africa and the Middle East in 2011 and Ukraine in 2013–2014, the authors conclude that these protest movements are fully consistent with the phenomenon referred to in the Arab political culture as “fitna” (strife, rebellion). Having fixed a whole array of parameters (heterogeneity of social composition and political attitudes of protest participants, ambiguity of their demands, unresponsiveness to rational arguments etc.) that make unrest in the Arab world and in Ukraine similar to the traditional “fitna”, L.Isaev and A.Shishkina also draw attention to the specific features of the modern “fitna” associated with the development of internet technologies. According to their conclusion, the emergence of fundamentally new means of mass communication alters the format of political activity in the world to such an extent that authorities are often unable to adequately assess a threat posed by protesters and thus, commit fatal errors.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-21-33