Nation-building in Belarus

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology, Turkey

Approval Date: 2012

Student: MAİYA FAMİCH

Supervisor: AYŞEGÜL AYDINGÜN

Abstract:

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the process of nation-building in the Republic of Belarus from 1991 till the present time. The focus is made on two main projects of nation-building presented by the official authorities and the political opposition. The main concern of this thesis is to make a comparative analysis of these two projects of Belarussian national identity. Also, the thesis examines the views of the official authorities and the political opposition on the history of Belarus, which is used as a tool of national identity construction in their projects of nation-building. Concepts of ethnic and civic nationalisms are discussed aiming at understanding the nature of nationalism in Belarus together with different theoretical approaches to ethnicity.