Volume 70, Issue 1

The article compares the failed self-transformation attempt in 1973 in Greece and the actual transition that occurred in 1983 in Turkey. These two cases of regime-initiated transitions to democracy with differing outcomes beg the question: If the 1973 transition in Greece led to a crippled democracy controlled by the military (as in Turkey 10 years later), why was it brought to an abrupt end by the very group that it was supposed to benefit—i.e. the military themselves? The author seeks to answer this question by comparing the position of the Turkish and Greek military in their respective power structures, which produced different regimes (hierarchical in Turkey vs. non-hierarchical in Greece). Moreover, in both cases, the transitions were not perceived as equally benefitting the military—hence the different outcomes, i.e. the failure of the Greek transition and the problematic democracy in Turkey.

The “digital turn” has transformed the landscape of transitional justice research. A wealth of data has been created through social media channels, and new digitisation tools have made existing data more easily accessible. This article discusses the ethical and methodological dimensions of using digital data and novel technologies in transitional justice research based on innovative research using digital archives, digitised transcripts, social media (Facebook) content and digital images. The authors review and evaluate how, in each of these domains, new digital technologies have enabled scholars to expand empirical evidence to understand the mechanics of transitional justice by analysing how data is produced and curated, to interrogate ethical dilemmas involved in those processes and to shift the focus from the ability of transitional justice to fulfil normative goals to how transitional justice is enacted and articulated as a process.

The paper examines the current demographic crisis of Transnistria, an internationally unrecognised state that separated from Moldova in 1990 followed by a short violent conflict in 1992. Much has been written about the conflict between Moldova and Transnistria. What these studies largely neglected to mention is that the region is experiencing a strong demographic decline for two reasons: sinking birth rates and high outmigration. This has consequences for economic development, education, healthcare, and the social infrastructure in both rural and urban areas. These trends are discussed against the background of the unique political situation of Transnistria and in light of similar demographic processes taking place in East Central and Southeastern Europe. The authors draw conclusions about the stability of the region and the relevance of the demographic situation for conflict transformation. The paper is based on studies conducted in Transnistria and fieldwork undertaken by the authors.

The authors address working class women’s activism in socialist Yugoslavia, focusing on archives produced at both factory and municipal levels by local društva žena or aktivi žena (women’s societies/sections) in the industrial town of Varaždin, Croatia. Their critical exploration of archival sources produced between the mid-1950s and the late 1980s has enabled the authors to challenge dominant interpretations of women’s activism during state socialism, particularly the idea that no relevant activism existed after the dissolution of the Antifascist Women’s Front (AFŽ) in 1953. To counter that view the authors highlight the continuities between the AFŽ and subsequent women’s organizations, the Union of Women’s Societies (SŽD) and the Conference for the Social Activity of Women (KDAŽ), in terms both of discursive narratives and of biographical trajectories. They argue that local archival collections provide new and differentiated insights into past gender and labour conflicts and into working class women’s activism.

When heavy earthquakes hit southcentral Croatia at the end of December 2020, the general readiness to help those who lost their material everything, or even loved ones, was remarkable. People and institutions all over the country (self-)organized relief actions, ranging from fundraising to packing their toolboxes and heading towards the affected regions. Based on the rich media coverage ensuing these so-called Petrinja earthquakes, named after the town that was most affected, the author analyzes the discourse of helpfulness triggered by the disaster. As she shows, this discourse revealed not only a great affective momentum regarding the survivors of the catastrophe (“the needy”), but also clearly moralist stances of what was deemed right (“the good”) as opposed to wrong (“the bad”) with regard to how people sought to help.

This paper was created as a result of the observed instability of external emigration data from Croatian official data in comparison to data from the statistical offices of the European Union (Eurostat) and Germany (DESTATIS). In this study, the author presents a descriptive analysis of alternative data sources (big data), which could be useful for determining emigration flows from Croatia to Austria and Germany, as well as for estimating and forecasting. The second goal of this paper is to show that this approach can be useful for assessing the degree of cultural assimilation/integration of Croatian emigrants using the tools of Google Trends and Facebook Analytics. To estimate the model, linear regression was used to measure the correlation between the number of searches ( x ) and the number of moves ( y ) evidenced by the official statistics.

The history of Georgia and the entire South Caucasus or Transcaucasia is a heavily marginalised field in international historical scholarship. This book review essay identifies and discusses major trends in recent publications on the modern history of Georgia in order to improve the chances of its integration into larger historical contexts and debates.