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The Contemporary Form of the Bektashi Order in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia: Sources of Bektashi Spirituality
Korábečný, Martin ; de la Vega Nosek, Lukáš (advisor) ; Štampach, Ivan (referee)
- anglicky The focus of this thesis is folk spirituality of the bektashi order. A field research trip in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia has been conducted to show the importance of the category of the Sacred. For this reason the first part of thesis deals with the category of the sacred and the category of spirituality, and contains application of the category of the Sacred on bektashiya. We use the model here proposed by Ninian Smart and Zdeněk Vojtíšek which allows for folk spirituality and individuality of spiritual experience be included within spirituality of subjective experience framework without putting a value on them or limiting them. We see them as part of a larger framework of spirituality where different dimensions can be determined, i.e. sacred presuppositions, rituals, experience, community, ethics, work of art and sacred stories. It is possible to feed human spirituality on different dimensions from various sources. During the field trip the conclusion has been reached that people who draw for their spirituality from bektashi tradition tend to choose certain aspects to include them in their personal spirituality as folk spirituality aspects. Second part of the thesis focuses on their source. Three sources had been determined - local culture, christianity and/or shamanism....
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Turkey's Influence in Kosovo and Albania since 2006
Rukiqi, Dorjeta ; Doboš, Bohumil (advisor) ; Riegl, Martin (referee)
Kosovo and Albania have developed relations with Turkey for many centuries, due to a shared history. These relations took another dimension in the 21st century with the entrance of President Erdogan into the political scene of Turkey. Personal relations were developing between the leader of Turkey with leaders in Kosovo and Albania. Moreover, in the field of economy, they have reached many agreements that impact the markets of Turkey, Albania and Kosovo. The shared past concluded to major similarities in culture between the countries. Due to Muslim societies, Turkey has also been utilizing religion as a tool to project soft power in Albania and Kosovo. In this study we take a closer look at Turkish influence in Albania and Kosovo in the political, economic, and cultural spheres. The study was conducted on a mixed methodology where ten semi-structured interviews with experts, professors and politicians were developed (five per each country) and a survey to include citizens' perceptions on the topic (867 persons responded to the survey, around 51% of respondents from Kosovo and 49% from Albania). This study concluded that Turkey's influence in Kosovo and Albania is not negative, except for rare cases of penetration in internal politics. Cultural similarities are seen to contribute to trade between...
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The European Union and the democratization of the states of the Western Balkans
Havránková, Lenka ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Vlček, Václav (referee)
This diploma thesis concerns itself with the influence of the European Union on the democratization of two Western Balkan states, namely Serbia and Albania. The goal of the thesis was to determine which mechanisms and instruments the organisation uses in these cases and how effective these instruments and mechanisms are. For these purposes, the theory of Jon Pevehouse was chosen, because it introduces nine tools in total that all regional organisations have for the puropose of democratization of candidate or member states. In the case studies of Serbia and Albania were then identified seven out of nine of these mechanisms in the political area, the rule of law area and the area of human rights and freedoms. These mechanisms are pressure, socialization, financial assistance, legitimization, deterrence of losers, creating commitments for winners and institutional change. At the same time, the real impact of these mechanisms on the democratization process in these states was assessed. It was determined that the effectivity of these mechanisms is unfortunately limited by, for example, the lack of political will to implement the adopted reforms in practice. On the other hand, it was determined that some of the instruments and mechanisms were used insufficiently or incorrectly, which then influences the...
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Phylogeography of the genus Squalius in Albania
Lerch, Zdeněk ; Švátora, Miroslav (advisor) ; Kalous, Lukáš (referee)
The thesis is focused on the issue of the Squalius genus phylogeography in Albania in the Balkan region. Phylogenetic analyses of sequence variation at mitochondrial genes (cytochrome b) were used to examine these issues for the freshwater fish genus Squalius from various river systems in the Adriatic Sea region. There were identified 3 genetic lineages of vague taxonomic position where the genetic variation amount to 1.6-2.1 %. The first lineage is distributed in north of Albania and in the whole Periadriatic region, the second lineage is especially spread to northern part of Albania and the third lineage covers especially the zone of the European ancient lake systems on the Balkan Peninsula (Lake Ohrid and Prespa), from where expands to the southern part of Albania. There sympatrically coincide the both lineage in the hydrological river-lake system of Drin and Skadar. The phylogenetic and taxonomic position of the Squalius genus in the region seems to be interesting topic for subsequent and more detailed study. Keywords: Squalius, Albania, cytochrome b, phylogeography
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NATO enlargement to Western Balkans and its strategic importance
Tesařová, Šárka ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Karmazin, Aleš (referee)
This Bachelor thesis deals with the analysis of the development of the integration of Albania and Croatia into NATO structures. The first part describes the NATO open door policy along with the accession criteria and accession process. The key part is the analysis of whether and how the candidate states have fulfilled the established accession criteria based on the criteria of the NATO Enlargement Study, focusing in particular on selected factors - national political situation, public opinion, defence expenditure, professionalism, interoperability, diplomatic relations and cooperation with NATO, involvement in missions and relations with neighbouring states. It also examines the strategic interests of NATO in the Western Balkan region, and NATO may have been motivated by an attempt to strengthen its position in the Balkans. The outcome of the thesis is the assessment of the preparedness of the individual candidate states, where neither Albania nor Croatia fully met the accession criteria and the final decision of NATO was therefore more based on political judgment and strategy in the Balkans.
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Remittances and their impact on Eastern Europe
Kršjaková, Zuzana ; Kučerová, Irah (advisor) ; Stuchlíková, Zuzana (referee)
Diploma thesis "Remittances and their impact on Eastern Europe" examines the phenomenon of remittances as part of global migration and its having been largely economically motivated and having a positive impact on poverty alleviation. The chosen approach is empirical-analytical methodology. The paper suggests several motivations leading to migration and remittances as well as some positive impacts and risks affecting the senders, receivers as well as the beneficiary economies of remittances. This thesis offers an overview of both all principal source countries and the main corridors of remittance flow. The paper analyses three countries from the former eastern block - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Moldova - and the reasons which have lead to migration and remitting in these states in relation to their economic transformation from centrally planned to market economies. The analysis considers many factors such as the regional financial crisis in 1998 as well as the ethnically based military conflict which occurred due to the disintegration process in the former Yugoslavia. These issues influence not only the scale of remittances flow but also expand the variety of the senders which commonly include both refugees and Diasporas. Lastly, this thesis presents some possible scenarios related to the...
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Roma's ethnicity in Albania
Vysloužilová, Alena ; Jakoubek, Marek (advisor) ; Otčenášek, Jaroslav (referee)
The main goals of this bachelor thesis are description, analysis and overview of different Roma groups in example of current Albania and it focuses on the matter of ethnical identity. The thesis primarily concentrates on the compositions of collective identity with all its specifications and attributes. Generally it is the relationship between the Roma minority towards the Albanian majority that is researched. Also, the relationships and links between the Roma sub-groups themselves are taken into consideration as these relationships are eventually more important for individuals to identify with their own origin rather than relationships with any other ethnical or national group. Term 'identity' is defined as an affiliation in spectres of creed, language usage and inherited occupation. Key words Romany, Egjiptanet, Ashkali, ethnicity, Albania, community
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Relations of the EU with Montenegro and with Albania and Their Development in the Period from the Montenegro's independence to the end of 2007
Pechanová, Andrea ; Pikal, Kamil (advisor) ; Šístek, František (referee)
This thesis deals with the transformation of the relations between the European Union and Montenegro and between the European Union and Albania. Due to the effort of the EU to create programs that help the whole region of post-Yugoslavian republics, which are not the EU members, the thesis also takes into consideration the other countries in Western Balkans. The thesis aims to describe mainly the period of years 2006-2017 but there are also chapters which monitor the development in parts of the region during the 1990s. The thesis studies official reports of the institutions of the European Union, primarily the Progress Reports by the European Commission. Beside other things the thesis describes the method of accessing a country to the EU and explains the process of accession negotiations with the candidate member countries. The thesis monitors the amendments to the Albanian and Montenegrin laws. These changes were made based on the recommendations of the European Union with a view of aligning with the laws of the member states of the EU.
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