news Kosovo Kosovo and Serbia Verbally Agree on 'Implementation Deal' While EU hails an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo on normalisation of ties, Serbian and Kosovo leaders put very different spins on it, and Serbia’s President Vucic kept insisting he did not sign anything. Balkan Insight | 19 Mar 2023 opinion South Ossetia Georgia Is a New Front in Russia’s Hybrid War Vladimir Putin wants this once staunch US and European ally firmly in his club of authoritarian states. Bloomberg | 9 Mar 2023 news Where is Nithyananda’s ‘Kailasa’? Fugitive rape-accused Nithyananda is in the news after his disciple Vijayapriya Nithyananda, along with five other women, represented his ‘country’ Kailasa at a UN conference. India Today | 6 Mar 2023 video Chagos Archipelago That's When the Nightmare Started The forced displacement of the entire Chagossian people by the United Kingdom and United States governments and the UK’s racial persecution, and continued blocking of their return home, are crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a recently released report and video. Human Rights Watch | 1 Mar 2023 news Nagorno-Karabakh UN Court Orders Azerbaijan to End Roadblock The International Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan to “ensure unimpeded movement” on the highway connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been virtually closed for more than two months. Eurasianet | 23 Feb 2023 analysis West Papua The Pilot, the Rebels and the Independence Struggle Kiwi pilot Phillip Mehrtens was unlucky - he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was taken hostage by a rebel group in West Papua. The Detail takes a closer look at West Papua’s complicated independence struggle. Radio New Zealand | 20 Feb 2023 video Kosovo A Balkan Breakthrough? There’s been a lot of speculation that the EU and United States have put forward a new proposal for Serbia and Kosovo. But is this something we should take seriously? And what about trying to get a grand settlement instead? An informed look by professor James Ker-Lindsay. Youtube | 11 Feb 2023 analysis Bougainville Balancing Independence and Foreign Relations Bougainville is likely to play a surprisingly significant role in the tussles between China and the US in the Pacific region. Lucas Knotter analyses the future of this breakaway island. 9Dashline | 1 Feb 2023 podcast On the Border Tim Marshall explores four frontier communities in this podcast series by the BBC. Some sit on hard borders, others soft; all face challenges. What do Maastricht, Kinshasa, Niagara and Orestiada tell us about managing difference and global relations today? BBC / De Facto | 30 Jan 2023 podcast Nagorno-Karabakh The Hidden Siege Trapped by an Azerbaijani blockade, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians in the contested region are facing a humanitarian crisis. The Intercept | 20 Jan 2023 place of the week Minerva A Short-Lived Utopia On 19 January 1972, the libertarian millionaire Michael J. Oliver declared the independence of the Republic of Minerva in the Pacific Ocean. On the reefs he reclaimed from the sea with tons of sand shipped in from Australia, there would be ‘not any form of economic interventionism’. His act was not accepted by Tonga, the rightful owner of the reefs. De Facto | 19 Jan 2023 news Taiwan War game suggests Chinese invasion of Taiwan would fail at a huge cost A Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2026 would result in thousands of casualties among Chinese, United States, Taiwanese and Japanese forces, and it would be unlikely to result in a victory for Beijing, according to a prominent independent Washington think tank. CNN | 9 Jan 2023 news Spratly Islands China Accused of Fresh Territorial Grab in South China Sea China is building up several unoccupied land features in the South China Sea, according to Western officials, an unprecedented move they said was part of Beijing’s long-running effort to strengthen claims to disputed territory in a region critical to global trade. Bloomberg | 21 Dec 2022 news The self-proclaimed kingdom that doesn’t recognize Germany In the depths of the countryside in eastern Germany, there’s an invisible border. BBC | 12 Dec 2022 maps Paracel Islands Apple map app adds disputed islands Apple has added the Paracel and the Spratly archipelagos into its Apple Maps application following a request by Vietnamese authorities. VnExpress | 6 Dec 2022 photography An Atlas of countries that ‘don’t exist’ Italian photographers Lavinia Parlamenti and Manfredi Pantanella are working on An Atlas of countries that ‘don’t exist’ which will cover ten unrecognized states. Their aim is to make a photo book with the five places they covered so far: Transnistria, Catalonia, Nagorno Karabakh, Northern Cyprus and Western Sahara. Find out more about their project or make a donation on kickstarter. kickstarter | 22 Nov 2022 long read Taiwan A Dangerous Game Over Taiwan For decades, China has coveted its island neighbor. Is Xi Jinping ready to seize it? The New Yorker | 14 Nov 2022 film festival IDFA is in Town The International Documentary Festival Amsterdam in the Netherlands opens tomorrow. Many great films, and quite a few about curious borders and statehood. The festival will take place from November 9 till 20 in cinemas across the city. De Facto selected one installation and three movies. De Facto | 8 Nov 2022 news Chagos Archipelago UK Agrees to Negotiate with Mauritius over Handover The UK has agreed to open negotiations with Mauritius over the future handover of the Chagos Islands, in a major reversal of policy following years of resistance and legal defeats in international courts. The intended agreement will allow for the return of former inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago who were forcibly displaced by the British government in the 1960s and 1970s. The Guardian | 4 Nov 2022 long read Eurostaete Writings on the Wall A Country of Seven Billion Outhabitants, the long read by De Facto’s co-founder Jorie Horsthuis about EuroStaete, was selected for the editorial project The Writings on the Wall, a collaboration of Volume and Beta, the Timisoara Architecture Biennial 2022. Volume | 2 Nov 2022 place of the week Catalonia Five Years after the Defeat Five years ago, on 27 October 2017, the Catalan parliament declared independence after 92% of voters backed splitting from the rest of Spain in a referendum Madrid deemed illegal. Immediately after, the Spanish government imposed direct rule, sacked its leaders and dissolved the parliament. Is there any hope left for the separatists? De Facto | 27 Oct 2022 news Raising the Drawbridge By some estimations, Australia hosts around a third of the world’s self-declared micronations. There are three good reasons why The Guardian | 22 Oct 2022 news Taiwan Xi Jinping Opens Chinese Communist Party Congress with Warning for Taiwan President says he supports peaceful reunification but will ‘never promise to renounce use of force’. The Guardian | 16 Oct 2022 event De Facto at Beta 2022 De Facto was invited to participate at the Architectural Biennial of Timisoara in Romania: Beta 2022. One of the themes was the micronation. De Facto Beta | 12 Oct 2022 place of the week New Atlantis Dreaming of Atlantis Leicester Hemingway, the younger brother of Ernest, installed a raft just outside Jamaica’s territorial waters and named it New Atlantis. With the hopes to make this a real island, he raised a flag, sold stamps, and even issued his own currency. De Facto | 11 Oct 2022 festival Northern Cyprus Art & Performances at the Buffer Fringe Festival This weekend the Buffer Fringe Festival starts in Nicosia (Cyprus). Logically the division of the island and how it affects the people is a recurring topic. Explorer Olaf van Muijden selected some works for De Facto. Olaf van Muijden | 7 Oct 2022 news Crimea Miss Crimea Fined for Singing Patriotic Ukrainian Song Olga Valeyeva, who won the Miss Crimea 2022 beauty pageant, and an unnamed friend were found guilty of ‘discrediting’ the Russian army by singing the patriotic Ukrainian song ‘Chervona Kalyna’ on a balcony. The Guardian | 4 Oct 2022 event Kashmiri Vibes at De Facto LIVE #5 De Facto explores the realm of unrecognized states, fictional countries and curious border zones. On September 22 we had a great evening with talks, art and music at De Roode Bioscoop in Amsterdam. De Facto Henrik Jan Haarink | 4 Oct 2022 analysis Luhansk People’s Republic With Bluster and Threats, Putin Casts the West as the Enemy Declaring that Russia would annex four regions of Ukraine, which the West rejects as illegal, the Russian president accused the U.S. and its allies of ‘despotism’ and ‘Satanism’. The New York Times | 30 Sep 2022 news Donetsk People’s Republic Staged Referendums Yield Expected Result Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to illegally annex four partially occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine lurched forward Tuesday, as Russian officials and Kremlin proxy leaders claimed that staged referendums showed that more than 95 percent of voters want to join Russia — an absurd level of support. Washington Post | 27 Sep 2022 event De Facto Goes Timisoara The De Facto team is heading to the Architecture Biennial in Timisoara (Romania). Floor Koomen and Jorie Horsthuis will give a talk about unrecognized states, curious borders and micronations and will participate in a debate with Theo Deutinger and Giovanni Comoglio. Join us for this event! 23 Sep 2022
news Kosovo Kosovo and Serbia Verbally Agree on 'Implementation Deal' While EU hails an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo on normalisation of ties, Serbian and Kosovo leaders put very different spins on it, and Serbia’s President Vucic kept insisting he did not sign anything. Balkan Insight | 19 Mar 2023
opinion South Ossetia Georgia Is a New Front in Russia’s Hybrid War Vladimir Putin wants this once staunch US and European ally firmly in his club of authoritarian states. Bloomberg | 9 Mar 2023
news Where is Nithyananda’s ‘Kailasa’? Fugitive rape-accused Nithyananda is in the news after his disciple Vijayapriya Nithyananda, along with five other women, represented his ‘country’ Kailasa at a UN conference. India Today | 6 Mar 2023
video Chagos Archipelago That's When the Nightmare Started The forced displacement of the entire Chagossian people by the United Kingdom and United States governments and the UK’s racial persecution, and continued blocking of their return home, are crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a recently released report and video. Human Rights Watch | 1 Mar 2023
news Nagorno-Karabakh UN Court Orders Azerbaijan to End Roadblock The International Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan to “ensure unimpeded movement” on the highway connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been virtually closed for more than two months. Eurasianet | 23 Feb 2023
analysis West Papua The Pilot, the Rebels and the Independence Struggle Kiwi pilot Phillip Mehrtens was unlucky - he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was taken hostage by a rebel group in West Papua. The Detail takes a closer look at West Papua’s complicated independence struggle. Radio New Zealand | 20 Feb 2023
video Kosovo A Balkan Breakthrough? There’s been a lot of speculation that the EU and United States have put forward a new proposal for Serbia and Kosovo. But is this something we should take seriously? And what about trying to get a grand settlement instead? An informed look by professor James Ker-Lindsay. Youtube | 11 Feb 2023
analysis Bougainville Balancing Independence and Foreign Relations Bougainville is likely to play a surprisingly significant role in the tussles between China and the US in the Pacific region. Lucas Knotter analyses the future of this breakaway island. 9Dashline | 1 Feb 2023
podcast On the Border Tim Marshall explores four frontier communities in this podcast series by the BBC. Some sit on hard borders, others soft; all face challenges. What do Maastricht, Kinshasa, Niagara and Orestiada tell us about managing difference and global relations today? BBC / De Facto | 30 Jan 2023
podcast Nagorno-Karabakh The Hidden Siege Trapped by an Azerbaijani blockade, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians in the contested region are facing a humanitarian crisis. The Intercept | 20 Jan 2023
place of the week Minerva A Short-Lived Utopia On 19 January 1972, the libertarian millionaire Michael J. Oliver declared the independence of the Republic of Minerva in the Pacific Ocean. On the reefs he reclaimed from the sea with tons of sand shipped in from Australia, there would be ‘not any form of economic interventionism’. His act was not accepted by Tonga, the rightful owner of the reefs. De Facto | 19 Jan 2023
news Taiwan War game suggests Chinese invasion of Taiwan would fail at a huge cost A Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2026 would result in thousands of casualties among Chinese, United States, Taiwanese and Japanese forces, and it would be unlikely to result in a victory for Beijing, according to a prominent independent Washington think tank. CNN | 9 Jan 2023
news Spratly Islands China Accused of Fresh Territorial Grab in South China Sea China is building up several unoccupied land features in the South China Sea, according to Western officials, an unprecedented move they said was part of Beijing’s long-running effort to strengthen claims to disputed territory in a region critical to global trade. Bloomberg | 21 Dec 2022
news The self-proclaimed kingdom that doesn’t recognize Germany In the depths of the countryside in eastern Germany, there’s an invisible border. BBC | 12 Dec 2022
maps Paracel Islands Apple map app adds disputed islands Apple has added the Paracel and the Spratly archipelagos into its Apple Maps application following a request by Vietnamese authorities. VnExpress | 6 Dec 2022
photography An Atlas of countries that ‘don’t exist’ Italian photographers Lavinia Parlamenti and Manfredi Pantanella are working on An Atlas of countries that ‘don’t exist’ which will cover ten unrecognized states. Their aim is to make a photo book with the five places they covered so far: Transnistria, Catalonia, Nagorno Karabakh, Northern Cyprus and Western Sahara. Find out more about their project or make a donation on kickstarter. kickstarter | 22 Nov 2022
long read Taiwan A Dangerous Game Over Taiwan For decades, China has coveted its island neighbor. Is Xi Jinping ready to seize it? The New Yorker | 14 Nov 2022
film festival IDFA is in Town The International Documentary Festival Amsterdam in the Netherlands opens tomorrow. Many great films, and quite a few about curious borders and statehood. The festival will take place from November 9 till 20 in cinemas across the city. De Facto selected one installation and three movies. De Facto | 8 Nov 2022
news Chagos Archipelago UK Agrees to Negotiate with Mauritius over Handover The UK has agreed to open negotiations with Mauritius over the future handover of the Chagos Islands, in a major reversal of policy following years of resistance and legal defeats in international courts. The intended agreement will allow for the return of former inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago who were forcibly displaced by the British government in the 1960s and 1970s. The Guardian | 4 Nov 2022
long read Eurostaete Writings on the Wall A Country of Seven Billion Outhabitants, the long read by De Facto’s co-founder Jorie Horsthuis about EuroStaete, was selected for the editorial project The Writings on the Wall, a collaboration of Volume and Beta, the Timisoara Architecture Biennial 2022. Volume | 2 Nov 2022
place of the week Catalonia Five Years after the Defeat Five years ago, on 27 October 2017, the Catalan parliament declared independence after 92% of voters backed splitting from the rest of Spain in a referendum Madrid deemed illegal. Immediately after, the Spanish government imposed direct rule, sacked its leaders and dissolved the parliament. Is there any hope left for the separatists? De Facto | 27 Oct 2022
news Raising the Drawbridge By some estimations, Australia hosts around a third of the world’s self-declared micronations. There are three good reasons why The Guardian | 22 Oct 2022
news Taiwan Xi Jinping Opens Chinese Communist Party Congress with Warning for Taiwan President says he supports peaceful reunification but will ‘never promise to renounce use of force’. The Guardian | 16 Oct 2022
event De Facto at Beta 2022 De Facto was invited to participate at the Architectural Biennial of Timisoara in Romania: Beta 2022. One of the themes was the micronation. De Facto Beta | 12 Oct 2022
place of the week New Atlantis Dreaming of Atlantis Leicester Hemingway, the younger brother of Ernest, installed a raft just outside Jamaica’s territorial waters and named it New Atlantis. With the hopes to make this a real island, he raised a flag, sold stamps, and even issued his own currency. De Facto | 11 Oct 2022
festival Northern Cyprus Art & Performances at the Buffer Fringe Festival This weekend the Buffer Fringe Festival starts in Nicosia (Cyprus). Logically the division of the island and how it affects the people is a recurring topic. Explorer Olaf van Muijden selected some works for De Facto. Olaf van Muijden | 7 Oct 2022
news Crimea Miss Crimea Fined for Singing Patriotic Ukrainian Song Olga Valeyeva, who won the Miss Crimea 2022 beauty pageant, and an unnamed friend were found guilty of ‘discrediting’ the Russian army by singing the patriotic Ukrainian song ‘Chervona Kalyna’ on a balcony. The Guardian | 4 Oct 2022
event Kashmiri Vibes at De Facto LIVE #5 De Facto explores the realm of unrecognized states, fictional countries and curious border zones. On September 22 we had a great evening with talks, art and music at De Roode Bioscoop in Amsterdam. De Facto Henrik Jan Haarink | 4 Oct 2022
analysis Luhansk People’s Republic With Bluster and Threats, Putin Casts the West as the Enemy Declaring that Russia would annex four regions of Ukraine, which the West rejects as illegal, the Russian president accused the U.S. and its allies of ‘despotism’ and ‘Satanism’. The New York Times | 30 Sep 2022
news Donetsk People’s Republic Staged Referendums Yield Expected Result Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to illegally annex four partially occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine lurched forward Tuesday, as Russian officials and Kremlin proxy leaders claimed that staged referendums showed that more than 95 percent of voters want to join Russia — an absurd level of support. Washington Post | 27 Sep 2022
event De Facto Goes Timisoara The De Facto team is heading to the Architecture Biennial in Timisoara (Romania). Floor Koomen and Jorie Horsthuis will give a talk about unrecognized states, curious borders and micronations and will participate in a debate with Theo Deutinger and Giovanni Comoglio. Join us for this event! 23 Sep 2022