The depth of the deadlock? Underlying themes in the Georgian-Abkhaz and Moldovan-Transnistrian Post-Soviet conflicts

ABSTRACT Despite nearly three diplomatic decades of tracks and negotiations, the Georgian-Abkhaz and Moldovan-Transnistrian conflicts have remained unresolved. While the article identifies that a part of the intransigence of the conflict parties’ positions exists in the effect of different layers of competing narratives that have created static positions, I argue that still more attention needs to be paid to the layers of the competing narratives by addressing two underlying themes: imagined victimhoods and alienated identities. The article thematises subtle and hidden aspects that have accompanied the negotiations but have not been addressed clearly, yet hold the potential for change.