Titular nation

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As titular of a state one is a nation called, from their ethnonym is the name of the State in question is derived. Not every people is at the same time the titular nation of a state construct. Nations such as the Armenians , Italians , Latvians , Kazakhs or Germans are peoples or ethnic groups and at the same time titular nations ( Armenia , Italy , Latvia , Kazakhstan , Germany , ...). Many state names do not refer to a nation, but are e.g. B. geographical or other origin (examples: Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands).

Titular nation as a minority in the country

In some states, for example the sub-republics and autonomous regions of the multiethnic state of Russia , the respective titular nation does not always constitute the majority population, but the ethnic minority that gives it its name was or is  de facto - despite political and cultural (partial) autonomy - by a Russian majority population or assimilated by the Russian Federation as the titular nation superordinate to the individual federal subjects .

It is similar, for example, in one of the five autonomous regions of China , Inner Mongolia . While the ( Chinese ) Mongols are the titular nation there, they (as of: 2000) represent only the second largest ethnic group in the area with just 17% of the population . By far the largest ethnic group in Inner Mongolia (as in the whole of China with 91.5%) are the Han Chinese (approx. 79%; cf. Demography of Inner Mongolia ). The Mongols are one of 56 peoples in the PRC that the government has officially recognized as a " nationality ".

Potential for conflict

There have always been nationality conflicts (and still exist today), especially when

  1. Staatsvolk (i.e. all citizens regardless of their ethnic origin ) and titular nation ( i.e. citizens of the eponymous ethnic group) equated,
  2. an ethnic minority that does not give its name but has always resided on the national territory is not recognized as such and
  3. instead it was or is being forced to assimilate .

This happened, for example, in the so-called intermediate Europe between the two world wars, but also in Francoist Spain , during the Cold War in Romania , Bulgaria and Greece , as well as in Turkey , China , Vietnam , Georgia and some African states with colonial division - and border-drawing inheritance .

literature

  • Detlev Wahl: Lexicon of the peoples of Europe and the Caucasus. Meridian-Verlag, Rostock 1999, ISBN 978-3-934121-00-3 .