This edited volume addresses the connections between forced displacement and the role of religious organizations in providing humanitarian relief in the vast geographical area covering eastern and southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Chronologically, the studies stretch from the late nineteenth century to 2020. The contributors belong to disciplines as different as political science, history, religious studies, anthropology, and some are human rights activists.
In their introduction, Victoria Hudson and Lucian N. Leustean state that there is no common pattern, as “the intersection between religion, displacement and human security is diverse” (28). In Ch. 2, Ansgar Jödicke reminds us that after the Second World War, international organizations did not trust religious actors to provide humanitarian support, but in the last ten years the situation has changed (46). The authors argue that religious organization and humanitarian action are not easy to define, and “the categories of ‘religious’ and ‘non-religious’ humanitarian action are indistinct and ultimately delusive” (52). Nonetheless, the study of humanitarian action can reveal something about religion that a focus on established categories, such as belief, ritual, or myth do not reveal (52–53). The following twelve chapters are organized in four regional sections: eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Moldova, Poland); Russia and Ukraine; the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia); and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan). These countries have their post-socialist or post-Soviet past in common, with Greece being the notable exception. Most are predominantly Orthodox Christian, with the exception of Roman Catholic Poland, Armenia (Armenian Apostolic Church), and the three predominantly Islamic Central Asian countries where nonetheless two studies focus on Christian groups, whereas the chapter on Uzbekistan centers on Islam. Every country-focused chapter can be read independently. The chapters offer statistics about religious, ethnic, and national belonging, as well as displacement, humanitarian action, and most include a historical overview. While some devote more attention to official statements, normative definitions and law, others also provide enthralling first-hand empirical findings based on interviews (Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia). Indira Aslanova usefully, although briefly, spotlights gender in her study of Protestant converts in Kyrgyzstan, a particularly welcome perspective missing from the other chapters.
The introduction claims that religious organizations have been among the key actors in the provisioning of humanitarian relief in cases of forced displacement. Yet, the chapters depict a large spectrum of situations. On one extreme are studies demonstrating that religious organizations do play an important humanitarian role. In their chapter about humanitarian aid in Serbia provided by faith-based organizations during the Yugoslav wars between 1991 and 1996, Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović and Marko Veković draw on fascinating first-hand empirical data illustrating arrangements between religious organizations and state authorities that made possible the provisioning of aid to displaced persons. Jasmine Dum-Tragut's excellent historical overview examines the crucial role of the Armenian Apostolic Church in rescuing and helping refugees who are ethnic Armenians and who fled from a great number of regions to their mythical homeland during the Armenian genocide, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and the war in Syria. The author explains why some of these refugees pose challenges to the present-day Republic of Armenia. Two chapters emphasize that the refusal of some religious structures to provide support in specific historical, geographic, and ideological contexts is as important to analyze as their eager participation in other contexts. Daniela Kalkandjieva's chapter about the Bulgarian Orthodox Church thoughtfully demonstrates that the modern history of the largest religious organization in Bulgaria can be read through the lens of how it has related to different refugees and endangered populations. During the World War II, Jews from the territories occupied by Bulgaria fell victim to mass deportation to the Nazi camps, while some Church hierarchs courageously defended Jews living in the “old” territories, and these people were eventually rescued. In 2015, the “influx of refugees [from conflict-torn zones] in Bulgaria provoked intense public debates centered on the migrants’ religious identity” (62). The Church saw these contemporary migrants as a threat to the Bulgarian nation, joining the position of numerous Bulgarian politicians and activists who presented these refugees as potential Islamist terrorists. Rano Turaeva's chapter about Uzbek migrants adds another nuance. In examining the role that Islam plays in supporting, or not, Uzbek migrants, Turaeva demonstrates that in Moscow, mosque communities of Central Asian Muslims are crucial in supplying Uzbek migrants with connections and support, while Islamic structures do not seem to play any role in the life of internal migrants within Uzbekistan. On the other extreme of the spectrum are chapters (Poland, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan) showing that displacement, whether for work or forced due to armed conflict, does not necessarily entail humanitarian action on behalf of religious organizations. Yet, several authors note that the engagement of local parishes and groups providing relief in cases when the mother organizations do not undertake any action deserves more attention.
Part of the chapter about Russia is devoted to the role of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in the provisioning of humanitarian aid to all those who fled to Russia from the so-called “Popular Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine's Donbas between 2014 and 2016. It also informs us about aid delivered in southeastern Ukraine during the same period. Roman Lunkin mentions a collaboration established with the Billy Graham Association as evidence of the international cooperation of the Moscow Patriarchate in helping refugees from the Donbas (228–29), stressing that support was offered to all those who were able to show documents confirming their refugee status (229). While the author reports on the charitable deeds of the Moscow Patriarchate, the next chapter about Ukraine sheds a different light on the same tragedy. According to Dmytro Vovk, the pro-Russian authorities of the two “Popular Republics” considered affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate as the only acceptable one and persecuted those belonging to other denominations. Vovk's chapter is written as a report on the systematic violation of religious freedom in these territories. The juxtaposition of these two chapters is puzzling. What should the reader conclude about the role of the Moscow Patriarchate? A synthesis by the editors of the volume would have been helpful. A general conclusion could have summarized the main findings. Overall, the volume can be of interest to scholars of religion, humanitarian action, and migration in the studied regions and beyond.
