Meanwhile in the Balkans...

Also, it's interesting thinking about "The Balkans" after reading Balkan Ghosts, because the book talks about the Greeks and the Romanians and it's kinda hard for me to think about the Balkans WITHOUT thinking about Greece (which is probably still recovering from the iron-fisted and corrupted rule of that glorified dictator Andreas Papandreou) and Romania (another one of those countries that woke up from a lengthy nightmare after the fall of communism).

Y'know, nowhere else in this world has a political situation been so complicated as that of the nations that comprised the former Yugoslavia. And I'm sure it's going to take a heck of a long time and a LOT more conflict for things to really start calming down.

(And I have no idea if any of the above makes sense. My head is swimming with unorganized info at the moment and I'm also feeling especially groggy. Ack.)

In hindsight it is easy to suggest how the UN / US should have acted. At the time, no-one had any idea of how Yugoslavia would evolve post Tito and the fall of communism, including the people themselves. Each of the Balkan wars has different histories (Serbs vs Croats, Serbs vs Croats and Bosniaks, Corats vs Bosniaks etc, Kosova, Volvojina).

On a brighter note, Croatia is a beautiful country to visit. Very little evidence of war (as opposed to Bosnia which is still riddled with bullet holes and unexploded mines). Montenegro is opening up to foriegn tourists as well (although on a smaller scale and attempting to reach the more expensive end of the market). The cities of Budva and Kortor are like smaller versions of Dubrovnik.

Macedonia and Greece’s naming dispute seems to be possibly, maybe, coming to some kind of resolution. Greece will continue to block Macedonia from joining the EU under the FYROM / Macedonia name (which Greece lays claim to) but negotiators have just agreed to change the name of Skopje’s airport from Alexander The Great (who Greece lays claim to) to something else and will apparently also change the name of all Alexander-themed roads. It’s magnificently petty but this was a precondition for Greek airlines to start going there and suggests they might be able to find a compromise on the name of the country itself.

this is a fascinating issue, thanks SV for the update. This Beeb article from last year gives some context http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-40781213

Been reading the talk section on the wikipedia page for Macedonia for years, that's some quality debate

According to Greek media, the talks between Greece and FYROM have unofficially produced a name that's acceptable to both parties: [Republic of] GornaMakedonija - one word https://t.co/7KTcvfdymM

— Balkanist Magazine (@Balkanist) January 30, 2018

Good luck GornaMakedonija (one word).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46855088

The ruling Greek coalition has dissolved, with Tsipras calling a confidence vote for next week, after a split over whether GornaMakedonija is sufficiently different from Makedonija to be acceptable.

still bewildered by how much greek ppl care about this

agreed, the rancor seems absurd

This is the Balkans thread after all...

ah look let them off with their local tiff i mean whats the worst can happen

bewildered by how much greek ppl care about this

For Greek national pride, since they currently have almost no wealth and no power, their long history is their most cherished marker of national importance and identity. Under Alexander, Macedonia conquered the world. To nationalists in both Greece and GornaMakedonija, claiming rights to that history is a bone well worth quarreling over.

it's not as important as the church, and like a lot of sources of nationalist pride, boasting abt this ancient hellenic pedigree is a fairly modern phenomenon. I know liberal greeks involved in politics who roll their eyes at a lot of the nationalist content on the curriculum and who are v optimistic and open-minded about the muslim population and relations with turkey, and yet they're still kind of incensed by this biz, insist on referring to it as "skopje" and so on. I'm not really all that bewildered ofc: lots of little things attain symbolic significance way beyond their material significance, but it's definitely a peculiarity

Currently on a call between the Greece and Serbia offices of my company discussing the Balkans and trying to subtly get the Greeks to stop calling North Macedonia "Skopje-Feeeerom". It's going to take some time.

This is a letter in which my country’s President invites the Prime Minister to a meeting about the country’s political situation. With 24hs notice and availability from 5am in the morning but no specific time slot. 😂😂😂❤️Balkans ❤️#Albania pic.twitter.com/ZIvMhmKkXu

— Lea Ypi (@lea_ypi) June 27, 2019