Geopolitical determinants of interethnic relations on the Balkan Peninsula (original) (raw)
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At the end of the 20th century, the Balkans once again became the theater of the kind of tectonic political events that had not been seen in Europe since the Second World War. Wars, millions of refugees, fall of regimes, changes of political and economic systems, and great socio-economic crises all directly influenced demographic processes and the population structures. In this respect, the ethnic structure of the population is still very important in the Balkans at the turn of the 21st century. The change of the number of members of a particular ethnic group is determined by the births, deaths and net migration as well as changes in declaration of ethnic affiliation and the appearance of new ethnic groups and changes in the names of existing ethnic groups. Despite noticeable advances in statistical coverage of the ethnic structure of the population, it is still impossible to create a complete ethnic image of the Balkans. Based on the available final results of the consensus (until the end of August 2012), we can conclude that changes in the ethnic composition of the population during the 1990s and 2000s did not develop in the same direction. Homogenization of the ethnic structure is noticeable in Croatia and, to a certain extent, in Romania. In Croatia, it is reflected in the significant increase in the number of ethnic Croats and an enormous decrease in the number of ethnic Serbs (the second largest ethnic group), primarily due to their forced emigration to Serbia during the civil war (1991-1995). In Romania, a very high percentage of ethnic Romanians (around 89%) was maintained, but the percentages of the previously numerous ethnic Hungarians and Germans decreased significantly. In Macedonia, Albania, Greece, and Montenegro, real or "virtual" heterogeneity of the ethnic structure can be observed. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia are special cases. The ethnic structure of the populations of those two countries is still very heterogeneous, but the ethnic composition of the population of the entities or provinces is far more homogenous than that of the population that lived in those areas before 1991. In the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, a large majority contains of ethnic Serbian population, while in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina the largest percentage consists of Bosniaks and ethnic Croats. The changes in main regions are also very different in Serbia. In Central Serbia, in the observed period, a high percentage of Serbs was maintained (close to 90%), while in Vojvodina their share increased significantly (from 57% to around two thirds of the total population), primarily due to the immigration of refugees from Croatia. At the same time, in Kosovo and Metohija, the increase in the share of ethnic Albanians continued (probably up to the level of around 90% of the total population) and an intensive decrease in the percentage of Serbs continued (probably down the level of 5% to 7%). The real ethnic structure of Kosovo and Metohija is still insufficiently clear because the Statistical Office of Serbia could not conduct a 2011 census in that province, while the census conducted by the Kosovo Agency of Statistics was boycotted by a large majority of ethnic Serbs.
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Starting with the definition of the concept of strategic culture and its substantive extension and improvement, the paper examines the links between the geopolitical framework or the geopolitical determination of the state and its strategic culture, in this case - the Serbian state and the Serbian people. By observing the creation of the Serbian identity and the Serbian strategic culture from a historical perspective through the prism of the key geopolitical processes of "long duration" in the Balkans, we further study the specifics of the Serbian identity and the Serbian strategic culture in its contemporary major variants. The second part of the paper then examines the contemporary geopolitical processes in the Balkans and the position in which Serbia and the Serbian people are placed, as well as the perspectives to which they can lead. The final part of the paper, taking all this into account, looks at Serbian possibilities in contemporary geopolitical circumstances to ...
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Within contemporary geopolitical processes, respect for the rights of national minorities is no longer the discretion of a state, but rather is an indirect or direct international regulation of the minority issue. In the beginning of the 1990s, the political economical crisis and disintegration of the former SFRY opened the national question, that was considered to be permanently and successfully solved, in the most dramatic way, and ethnic conflicts and clashes followed the desintegration of the country. With the formation of a new states on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, the existence of numerous and different national minorities ("old" and "new") required a different approach to their protection and integration in complex political circumstances. Thus, the position of the so called new minorities drastically changed since they formed constituent nations in the former SFRY, while after secession they remained separated from their home nations and becam...
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In the 5th – 4th century BC the data are about a tradition of mutually beneficial coexistence and cooperation between the Odrysian kingdom - empire and poleis on its shores of the Marmara and Aegean Seas. For the period 3rd century BC – 1st century AD, the data for mutually beneficial coexistence and cooperation are only for the Western Black Sea coast. In the second period there was no Odrysian empire, but there were Thracian ethnic states, with the greatest manifestation again of the Odrysian kingdom, now called Thracian, which is represented by a certain domination of its rulers over the Hellenic poleis of the Western Black Sea coast. This complements the picture of the three Thracian coasts of the Thracian, Marmara and Black Seas, albeit partially.
Carpatho-Balkan ethnolinguistic Parallels
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Речь в работе пойдет о лексике народной духовной культуры общего славянского происхождения, а также о существенных текстуальных совпадениях в кратких фольклорных жанрах у славян в восточных Карпатах и на Балканах. Карпато-балканские этнолингвистические соответствия в терминологической лексике народной духовной культуры, заметно выделяющиеся на общеславянском фоне, можно разделить на несколько групп, связанных с ареальными характеристиками рассматриваемых явлений. Во-первых, наблюдается большое число соответствий у южных славян на Балканах и в Южных Карпатах на территории Румынии. Нередко культурно-языковые явления этого типа составляют общий севернобалканский ареал. Во-вторых, в последнее время обнаруживается все больше этнолингвистических параллелей у южных славян восточной части Балкан и у славян, населяющих Западные Карпаты (в частности, в процессе применения балканославянского этнолингвистического вопросника в полевых исследованиях в Средней Словакии). Такие параллели во многом объясняются процессами так называемой валашской колонизации на север в XIV-XV вв. В-третьих, обнаруживаются эксклюзивные сходства в терминологической лексике и корреспондирующих явлениях народной культуры у балканских славян и у славян в Восточных Карпатах (украинское Закарпатье), которые весьма архаичны и, по всей вероятности, связаны с двумя этапами заселения славянами Балканского полуострова. Рассмотрим несколько карпато-балканских этнолингвистических параллелей, характеризующих, с одной стороны, центральную зону Южной Славии, с другойаналогичные явления в Западной Украине, зафиксированные на Гуцульщине: (I) наименования, связанные с магией и колдовством (от *činiti); (II) названия мифологических персонажей, предсказывающих судьбу ребенка (от *sǫd-); (III) фольклорные мотивы, касающиеся запретов и предписаний, которые высказываются в песнях мифологических персонажей типа ю.-слав. + vila.