Irredentism: A Potent Form of Nationalism

Henry Srebrnik, [Toronto] Jewish Tribune

The word “irredentism” comes from the mid-19th century term “Italia irredenta,” meaning Italy unredeemed. As Italian nationalists were unifying the peninsula into a single Italian state, irredentists championed the annexation by the new Italy of territories that they felt should be within its borders.

Many nations lay claim to areas they consider to be theirs because the area was once – even if many decades or centuries ago – part of their patrimony.

Irredentism becomes a particularly potent form of nationalism when the territory coveted is the very area where the nation was forged.

Two high-profile irredentist conflicts relate to Israel and Serbia.

The dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs has an irredentist dimension and complicates attempts to form a Palestinian state.

Religious Jewish settlers refer to the areas west of the Jordan River by their Biblical names – Judea and Samaria. This was the heartland of the ancient Jewish kingdoms.

The cities of Jericho, Shechem (now Nablus) and Hebron are, to devout Jews, part of the land promised to the Israelites by God. Hebron, the burial site of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah, the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people, is the second holiest city in Judaism, after Jerusalem.

On the other hand, much of Israel’s coastal area along the Mediterranean, where the modern city of Tel Aviv is, was in Biblical days often in Philistine hands, and is of less nationalist significance. Hence there was less opposition in Israel to leaving Gaza.

Kosovo is the historic centre of the Serbian nation, home to many of its revered Christian Orthodox churches and monasteries. However, by the 1990s almost all of Kosovo’s population had become Albanian.

Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic refused to let go of Muslim-majority Kosovo, which was only detached from Belgrade’s control after the 1999 war. Kosovo is now a sovereign state, but many Serbs would love to reconquer it.

There are many other cases, even if the claims are not currently being pursued.

The heart of the German nation before World War II was Prussia, the kingdom that unified the country in 1871. Much of the land it controlled along the Baltic sea now belongs to Poland and Russia, thanks to Hitler’s defeat in 1945.

The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad was part of East Prussia before World War II, when the city was known by its German name, Königsberg. It was the home of, among others, the philosopher Immanuel Kant. No Germans remain there today.

Russia itself first developed a sense of nationhood in what is now the independent Ukraine. The Grand Duchy of Rus was a medieval state, with its capital in modern-day Kiev.

It was during this period that the Russian people accepted the Eastern Orthodox, or Byzantine, form of Christianity. Hence, even though the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, far to the north, later became the nucleus of the Russian Empire, the ethno-religious identity of the Russian people was formed in Kiev.

Many Russians – including millions living in Ukraine – would like to see the two countries reunited under Moscow’s rule.

Greece, like Italy, also emerged as a state in the 19th century, following centuries of Turkish rule, and it slowly reclaimed the Peloponnesian Peninsula and the Greek-speaking areas further north. Athens became its capital.

However, the medieval Greek Orthodox state, known as the Byzantine Empire, encompassed a much larger area, and its capital, the great city of Constantinople, was (and still is) the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch.

For centuries the Greeks tried to regain the city, which had been conquered by the Muslim Ottoman Turks in 1453 and renamed Istanbul. Some nationalists still dream of a Greater Greece incorporating Constantinople.

Another country that may harbour irredentist claims against Turkey is Armenia. The small rump area that became the independent Armenian republic following the collapse of the Soviet Union is much smaller than the historical Armenian kingdom.

In the Middle Ages, Armenia included much of present-day eastern Turkey; it was centred around Mount Ararat and Lake Van. Following Turkey’s defeat in World War I there were proposals for an Armenian state that would include much of Asia Minor. This never happened.

Mount Ararat is still revered by the Armenians as symbolizing their national identity and relations with Turkey remain tense.

Though most irredentist claims remain “dormant,” one never knows if they might flare up at some future date. We Jews are not the only ones with long historical memories.