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I am currently reading a book discussing Afghanistan, and a topic discussed related to the Pashtun population being in Afghanistan, yet a large majority of the population was also in neighboring Pakistan. The phenomenon was called "Pashtunistan."

However, a word was used in this part (I do not remember the page number), and I forgot what that word was. It sounded similar to "endentrism" (not a word) or denturism (not a word); what the word meant when I saw the definition (the Google effect is annoying like that) related to invading, etc. some other country to defend one's people, and here, it would involve Afghans hypothetically invading Pakistan because a large part of their ethnic group is there. It is similar to Russia invading Ukraine because ethnic Russians are in the eastern areas. Maybe the nuance did not include "invade," but that seems to correlate to the word's context of use.

I hope this is enough context. Does anyone know what this word is? It can have both -ism and -ist endings.

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    "denturism" looks to be a word, though, it's what dental technicians do. The making of false teeth, basically. (Somehow, my first thought was an imagined combination of dental tourism...)
    – ilkkachu
    Apr 5 at 6:12
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    @ilkkachu, perhaps better than my mental image of naked teeth!
    – Toby Speight
    Apr 5 at 12:27

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You may be thinking of "irredentism":

a political principle or policy directed toward the incorporation of irredentas within the boundaries of their historically or ethnically related political unit

where "irredenta" means:

a territory historically or ethnically related to one political unit but under the political control of another

Words with similar meanings are "revanche" and "revanchism":

a usually political policy designed to recover lost territory or status

However, those sound less like what you proposed.

(All definitions are from M-W.)

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