Constitutional Patriotism: Four European Reincarnations and the Russian Version

C P37Constitution of Czechia (Czech Republic) of 16 December 1992 was adopted on behalf of the “citizens of the Czech Republic in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, at this time of the reconstitution of an independent Czech State, true to all the sound traditions of the ancient statehood of the Lands of the Crown of Czechia as well as of Czechoslovak statehood”, the Constitution of the Slovak Republic of 3 September 1992 was adopt-ed on behalf of the “Slovak nation, bearing in mind the political and cul-tural heritage of [their] ancestors and the centuries of experience from the struggles for national existence and [their] own statehood… together with members of national minorities and ethnic groups living on the territory of the Slovak Republic”.The diff erences between the two approaches —  nation based on “co-citizenship” and constitutional nationalism can be identifi ed by ana-lyzing the language of constitutions.Article 116 of the Basic Law for the F RG defi nes who shall be consid-ered a German; similarly, the Constitution of Turkey defi nes who shall be considered a Turk:“Unless otherwise provided by a law, a German within the meaning of this Basic Law is a person who possesses German citizenship or who has been admitted to the territory of the German Reich within the boundaries of 31 December 1937 as a refugee or expellee of German ethnic origin or as the spouse or descendant of such person.” 67“Everyone bound to the Turkish State through the bond of citizenship is a Turk.”Comparing these two languages, one can clearly see an attempt to entrench the concept of citizenship-based nation with an additional ethnic component designed for those who, having kept their nation-al identity, live abroad. Similar wording can be found in the Constitu-tion of Azerbaij an which, instead of using the notion of Azeri nation, of the country’s population (according to the results of the surveys conducted in Czechia and Slovakia the day before thе act on the di...