#Blog Posts

       Situated between two hills that lean against the Mesaoria Plain, the largest plain in Cyprus, the mixed village of Pyla (Pile) takes its name from les pyles in French, meaning gates. It is as if this well-fitting …

      On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijani armed forces began large-scale shelling of targets in Nagorno-Karabakh, causing death, injury, and damage to property. The active hostilities did not come as a surprise. In preceding weeks, there were numerous reports …

       Transnistria found itself in an unprecedented political situation as the Russian aggression in Ukraine continues. In the early days of Transnistria’s secession from the territories of the Republic of Moldova, the government and political elite in Tiraspol …

           The end of the Second Karabakh War in November of 2020 did not solve the question of the future of the Armenian population of Karabakh and their status issue. Staying under protection of the Russian …

       The current conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the Donbass has touched upon one of the controversial issues in international law and international relations, namely that of international recognition. What entities are entitled to earn the status …

       On April 30, residents of the predominantly pro-Russian Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia in southern Moldova will elect a new Governor – bashkan. In the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia’s continuous efforts to …

       In mid-March 2023, the self-governing island of Taiwan lost another one of its already few diplomatic allies. Announcing the severing of diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Honduras on Twitter on March 15, Honduran president Xiaomara Castro noted …

       On February 27, the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia adopted the EU proposal in Brussels, officially called the ‘Agreement on the Path to Normalisation between Kosovo and Serbia’, which includes 11 provisions. On March 18, the leaders …

       On December 25, 2022, the Turkish Cypriots proceeded to the ballot boxes to vote for their local elections. In these delayed elections, the citizens of Northern Cyprus voted for their mayors, municipal councils, mukhtars (official/elected neighborhood representatives) …

      The De Facto States Research Unit looks back at the developments in the lesser recognised world in 2022. In last year’s blog, we noted the world becoming more unstable and unsafe for de facto states over 2021. …