Balkan Countries
Balkans! You have probably heard of this geographical area in Southeast Europe. Locals believe that “Balkan” originates from the Ottoman Empire, which means “a chain of wooden mountains.” Everyone nods to the general definition ‘Balkans,’ but it is mainly known for its geographic location, associating it with a common stereotype of social behavior.
Some characteristics of Balkan records have endured steady such as the fluidity of ethnic societies and the inability of folks to collaborate among themselves. It is worth mentioning the traditional tendency of political jurisdiction as soon as central leadership gets weakened and the considerable influence of foreign powers in these countries.
Nowadays, the difficulties of introducing and implementing into the region new theories that have evolved in a distinct political and social context are sadly present. Balkan history, social evolution, economic alliances, and cultural intersections often get confusing. Aspiring to provide an emphatic vision of Balkan’s main sections, let me unfold its puzzles.
Geographic Terms
The northern and middle regions of the Balkans have European weather, defined by chilly winters, sunny summers, and well-distributed precipitation. However, the southern and seaside areas apply a Mediterranean climate, with humid, hot summertime and mild, rainy winters.
It has always been hard to determine the Balkan’s geographic terms, even in the past. At space-time, the Balkan Countries have differed with time as the operating forces within the region.
Italy is the northwest end of the Balkans, while Hungary is the northern extremity. Moldova and Ukraine lay on the north and northeast side when Greece has Turkey’s south border. The West Coast of the Balkans gets washed by the Adriatic Sea, in the southwest by the Ionian Sea, and on East by the Black Sea. It is not easy to define the north of the Balkans as the Great Hungarian Plain extends from central Europe into sections of Croatia, Serbia, and Romania.
Moldova gets added to the Balkans because of Romania’s long-standing old social bonds. Slovenia is part of the Balkans because of its previous alliance in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and Yugoslavia. Greece rises on many lists of Balkan countries, considering its northern territories as sections of the Balkans. Turkey gets counted among Balkan countries because the Ottoman Turks cast a lasting shadow of executive power over the area for centenaries.
Countries such as Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia are wholly placed within the Balkan Peninsula, while only sections of Greece shore, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, and Turkey, embrace it adequately to be part of Balkan’s family.
Historical Background
The Balkan land has denoted, for a long era, an intriguing diamond for international authorities, but they frequently turned this playground into a wasteland of oppressing loss and bloodshed. An internal effect caused Balkan nations division into vassals or cruel lifetime adversaries. Influential governments prevented autochthonous societies from acquiring healthy associations.
What caused tensions among European countries and led to the First World War as one of the primary reasons was instability in the Balkans. Back in the 19th century, the Balkan territory was less advanced than Western Europe. It barely had some natural sources and, as a result, it was no economic powerhouse. Its strategic geological position was the main goal for most European governments that envied this land.
Additionally, it stood within three dominant European empires. The Ottoman, Russian and Austro-Hungarian unions pointed to the Balkan’s access as a key in reaching numerous indispensable waterways. It had served as a gate for the East and West for ages. The Balkans previously had difficulties because of the mixed ethnicities, and lately, it got nationalism to enhance problems.
Once Yugoslavia got freed of invaders, it dissolved in a bloody ethnic war. What went wrong with the method of the United States and its European confederates? We constantly believe that these crucial authorities felt superior in succeeding with their reformations. They had to take sides in what unavoidably shifted to a range of civil conflicts, innocent victims, uniformly genocidal invaders, or ethnic cleansers.
Before the NATO bombardment operations, the population numbers were manageable. At heart lies an oversimplified faith that condemns one country, the Serbs, as the root of disaster in the Balkans. It is an unspoken dogma used by the State Department at the opening of the Yugoslav conflicts and upheld today, a theory supported and advertised by the mainstream media, human rights organizations, and some religious communities. The undeniable reality of the Balkans is that none of its nationalities has been entirely innocent victims of evil acquaintances. All were guilty of executing, abuse, plunder, and burning at one time or another.
Before the bomb attack, many deaths could have stopped if America with its partners had taken a more moderate strategy and responded in time rather than waiting till the last minute of the exodus. Likely even the prominent eternal series of ethnic vengeance could have got stopped. While the Cold War was rising in the background, some considered the United States the ultimate glorious supreme authority. On the other hand, there was a total absence of authority on the Serbian side. NATO, prepared in standard warfare, was fatally disadvantaged by Albanian gatherings experienced in partisan tactics. Scanning back over the last 30 years, we encounter numerous proofs that notwithstanding the hope of many Kosovo Albanians to live peaceably beside their Slavic neighbors, there was constantly an implacable heart necessitating freedom.
Strangely, the American method to the Central Balkans had gone loose in that decade. Supported and approved by some European nations, the United States has influenced shaping healthy multiethnic lands.
No other area provoked such difficulties to so many foreign unions in the 20th century. The Ottoman Empire befell there in 1912. The Austro-Hungarian Empire rose to World War I over an execution in Sarajevo and collapsed in 1918. The initial difficulty to Stalin’s Soviet empire was the triumphant breakout of Yugoslavia in 1948. The Italian Imperialism and the Third Reich attacked and conquered but never entirely commanded the Balkans.
Political Relations
After World War I, the development of the new Balkan countries got endangered by legislative instability, ethnic breakdown, global economic recession, and the acceleration of authoritarian regimes. After World War II, communism prompted political establishment to the Balkans, but at the sacrifice of freedom, cultural and economic difficulties correlated to fast industrialization and varying shades of power by another extremist guidance, the Soviet Union.
National, geographical, and organizational experiences have converted Balkan’s political spectrums, shifted the governments in power, and shaped the political map three times. Regrettably, these alterations and renovations have never been accomplished civilly through political and strategic means.
The circumstances in the Balkans persist in being delicate even after all these years of bloody history. Although too many arrangements are quietly happening to improve the political situation, it feels like cold conflicts keep being on their way. Beneath these events, democratic Balkan countries, civilians, public communities, institutions, media, business alliances, academics, Western republics, and worldwide foundations dealing with the Balkans should stay assured not to dismiss this sad federal reality.
Studying existing agreements among Balkan countries, the most popular one is the “Schengen Settlement,” enabling passport-free movement within the 26 European states part of the Schengen Area. The latest cooperation in political relations is a new arrangement by the leaders of Serbia and Albania. The signing of the mini-Schengen deal stands to improve the regional market. This contract provides the market with a “chance to determine its competitiveness” and enhances the efficiency of shipping goods from essential industries. The ultimate intention of the negotiation is collaboration in exporting shared products to third markets. Within 2021-2024, the action plan intends to execute freedom of transportation and a shared regional market connecting Western Balkan nations.
Economic Conditions
Concerning the prior 30 years, the Balkans have changed various perspectives. Economic ones had the most severe consequences. Instability in Balkan has ended in immense levels of poverty. Not all countries are encountering tense poverty difficulties. Poverty in the Balkans extends to approximately one-fourth of the region’s community. Different countries experience diverse economic crises. Typically, unusual levels of need and hunger correspond to an escalation in the delinquency rate. Thankfully, the Balkans are some of the most harmless and most trustworthy countries in entire Europe. Poverty in them gets translated into utterly requiring the means to support their people.
Despite these sad historical facts, countries in the region have accomplished previous arrangements for economic interaction. 6 Balkan countries have been operating and implementing the Central European Free Trade Agreement known as CEFTA. It is a particular Free Trade Settlement connecting Western Balkans plus Moldova.
Trade represents a vital function in the EU’s works to support peace, balance, liberty, and economic expansion in the Balkans. For Balkan allies, the EU is the head business associate estimating approximately 70% of the region’s total trade. Statistically based, the trade numbers with the region have progressed by roughly 130% for the previous ten years.
EU has progressively settled bilateral FTAs related to “Stabilization and Association Accords” (SAAs) with every Western Balkan associate. The SAAs are intermediaries that better the countries’ financial advancement and state stabilization, creating a solid, long-term partnership connecting the EU with the Western Balkans.
Cultures Variations
The Balkans have resided since ancient eras. Nevertheless, today’s ethnic groups originate from Indo-European migrants, ethnic societies that landed in past times, and some of them as Albanians are autochthonous societies. Ethnic heterogeneity is one of the most exclusive social highlights in Balkan Countries.
The Balkan works of literature were the primary group of languages whose identities got taught in contemporary linguistic courses. Despite Turkish, the associated languages are components of the Indo-European language group, but they belong to five separate groups. Therefore, the Balkan languages are the most beloved representative of a well-documented and still living linguistic history. Let us start with the South Slavs, who compose most of Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, and Montenegro. The Bulgarians, North Macedonians, and Slovenes communicate in their Slavic linguistics, while the Slavs of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro talk idioms of Serbo-Croatian.
Balkan cuisine is well-known for its variety and rich, intense tastes. Pickled greens, petite spicy peppers, and feta cheese are standard components, while the sač, a wide bell-shaped lid that provides convection cooking, is commonly utilized in Balkan cuisines.
Balkan food relates to the regional cuisines of countries that belong to the cape. It was established in Ottoman times, implementing the culinary cultures of Turkey, Greece, Persia, and the Arab countries. Mediterranean and Central European cuisines have played a significant role too.
The best Balkan Cuisine that natives frequently learn and exchange with each other are dolma (stuffed peppers), meze, gyros, mixed grill plate, seafood, and baklava. A must-try is a typical homemade drink as rakia, the most potent alcoholic drink, and various coffees.
The Balkans have had a bitter past with numerous significant conflicts burning the region. Nonetheless, it continues to be an exceptional travel destination for passionate explorers. It feels like discovering a new, unusual world with fascinating multicultural cities, majestic monasteries, castles resting on hillsides, impressive mountains, woodlands and lakes, authentic food, and legendary folk music. Beach enthusiasts feel like standing in paradise with hundreds of kilometers of coastline.
Although some misunderstandings characterize these countries as dangerous, the Balkans are more reliable than any other country. It is noteworthy to recognize that the Balkans are not in conflict anymore and are safe to tour. All that outlasts from 90s battles serve to cast unfortunate remains. Traveling in the Balkans is comparable to going to the rest of Europe. Though situations are more moderate and less-developed, they do offer unique packages. The highest risk is frivolous robbery, just as it is in the rest of Europe.
Being from Balkan does not signify that we all look alike or speak each other’s languages. We do not have a likewise cultural background, although we comprehend each other’s beliefs and typical mindsets.
Don’t you know your neighbor better than anyone else?