Abkhazia, Transnistria and North Cyprus: Recognition and Non-Recognition in Ceasefire and Trade Agreements

Contested states and states countering secession may have to recognize each other when negotiating ceasefire and trade agreements, including trade regulations. Although these kinds of formalized relations do not imply the recognition of statehood, they strengthen or weaken status claims and the identities of the parties involved. Hence, such processes of mutual recognition do not suspend political contestation. As well as recognition policies, conflicting parties also have non-recognition policies in which they defend a position on the kind of status and identity they do not want to be associated with or that they do not want to be attributed to the other party. This article compares the policies of recognition and non- recognition of status and identity in negotiations for ceasefire and trade agreements involving the contested states of Abkhazia, Transnistria and North Cyprus.