CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ETHNIC CONFLICTS OF THE

BALKAN AREAS
Dragoş – Florentin DAMIAN
CBRN Defence Training Base”Muscel”, Câmpulung,
damian.dragos@yahoo.com
Scientific coordinator: Associate Professor Anca DINICU, PhD

Keywords: the Balkans, ethnic conflict, nationalism, international community

The main objective of this paper is to highlight the fact that the ethnic conflicts and
nationalism are the main sources of instability in the Balkans. Taking into considerations that
this region is quite large and it includes many countries, the conflicts are various and diverse.
Consequently, the paper brings into attention two different types of ethnic conflicts: the active
one and the simmering one. Starting with a brief history of the Balkan area, the analysis
continues with the current developments and the rebirth of nationalism after the end of the Cold
War. Next, it discusses the main ethnic conflicts and the aftermath, in strict relation with their
development and conclusions. Finally, it examines the role of some other interrelated factors,
like the role played by the international community through some global and regional
organizations.

Introduction
Addressing this issue is due to the importance of the ethnic issue, which, if it is not given
increased attention, can lead to the most violent conflicts. The proposed objective was to identify
the determinants of ethnic conflicts and their impact. The proposed objective was achieved
through a detailed analysis of the situation in the area and the study of the specialized articles
dealing with the subject.
In order to achieve the purpose of this article, we used as a methodology both the
selection and the analysis of succession of specialized articles, being a topic of international
interest, as well as the experience accumulated over time in this area.
The results clearly highlighted the fact that in the Balkans, ethnic conflicts, whether active
or pending, were the basis for the outbreak of wars, territorial divisions, the struggle for power
and the rule of supremacy. The quality of the information we receive through various
information technologies (mass media, newspapers, the Internet, etc.) about the situation in the
area does not always fully correspond to the facts, precisely in order not to create higher tensions
than the existing ones.
The impact of the adoption of some resolutions by the International Organizations (IO) at
the highest level, as well as the political and military intervention in the region, has led to
relative stability, ensuring peace is maintained. Relativity refers to the fact that regardless of the
methods, means and techniques of IO intervention, feelings of national identity, ethnicity,
religion etc. are very well rooted in the consciousness of the inhabitants of this region.
The originality of this article consists in structuring the main ideas on the characteristics
of ethnic conflicts and highlighting their impact on the situation in the area. Even though the
situation in the region is generally calm, by ensuring a safe and stable environment and freedom
of movement, there are still political disagreements and some independent and isolated actions
that can always be the basis for an outbreak of a major conflict.

Defining the Balkan area. Balkanization.

The Balkans are also known as the Balkan Peninsula, considering that they are
surrounded from southwest, trough south to south-east by the Adriatic Sea, the Ionian Sea, the
Aegean Sea, the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea. The delineation of the peninsula is subject to
geographical interpretations, always being a topical subject and a reason for controversy among
specialists.
The features that make this region special are mountainous relief and agitated and often
violent history. Over time, the Balkan area was at the border of the great empires, many wars,
conquests, invasions, confrontations, riots, from the Roman Empire to the last Wars of
Yugoslavia. Consecration of the term "Balkanization" is due to the tendencies for division into
rival political and military entities. This term suggests violence, ethnic confrontations, religious
rivalry, and the feeling of hinterland1.
"At the beginning of the 1990s, we could oppose the "Balkanization", understood as a
tendency to disintegrate states on the grounds of ethnicity, to the European construction that
became more and more powerful after Maastricht. Today, when many European countries face
problems of redefining borders as a result of regions that want independence, we can say that
"Balkanization" has become a phenomenon, characteristic of the whole of Europe"2
Within the geographical area called the Balkans, there are various ethnic groups, states
and South-Eastern European state formations, which differ at the same time through culture,
traditions, religion and language.
This region is characterized by the disputes between ideologies (nationalism and
globalism, communism and capitalism), respectively between universal religions (Christianity
and Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy), as well as that of confrontations to broaden the sphere
of influence and to increase political power.
Due to the violent history of the region, many people prefer to use instead of the name
"Balkans", the term Southeast Europe. In this direction, an EU initiative from 1999 is called the
Stability Pact for Southeast Europe, and the Balkan Times online edition is renamed in 2003 as
“Southeast European Time”.
Being of a purely geographic nature, the term "Southeast Europe" includes, theoretically,
also Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. Although Romania is not part of the
traditional Balkan area, it is included among the successors of the Ottoman Empire, due to the
fact that Romanian culture contains many Balkan elements.

Balkan Wars
Between 1912 and 1913 this region was the battleground of two great Balkan Wars. The
Ottoman territories of Macedonia, Albania and most of Thrace were conquered by the Balkan

1
tatrophic-geographic term, typically a "low-lying" land area that surrounds a more populated
city or area, with poor infrastructure or, in other words, a poor region
2
Jacques Rupnik, « Union européenne et Balkans, du contaminent à l’intégration », dans «
Géopolitique de la démocratisation : l’Europe et ses voisins », Editura Presses de Sciences Po,
21 noiembrie 2001, p. 201-226
countries (Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro). After occupying the territories, the
conquerors did not understand the territorial division, which gave rise to tensions.
Due to the tensions, accumulated in time and other factors, at the end of the last century,
the effects of the armed conflict in the republics of the former Yugoslavia were intensely felt in
the region. This armed conflict has prompted security organizations and structures to take action,
to restore order and maintain peace, in particular, the intervention of NATO forces in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Kosovo and Northern Macedonia and the provision of an interim administration in
Kosovo, by the United Nations (UN). The status of the Kosovo region and ethnic Albanians are a
subject of controversy even to this day. Balkan countries, thanks to their geographical position,
control the European terrestrial corridor between Western Europe and southwest Asia.
It is considered that the initial political division of the peninsula has been amplified after
Greece and Turkey entered NATO. Turkey has contributed to the consolidation of the southern
flank of NATO and Greece became an important Western pole in the southern Balkans.
The right dictum that "whoever masters the Balkans, masters the whole of Europe"
remains more current than ever, and the phrase "Europe's powder barrel" has other meanings in
the present.

Ethnic conflicts. Characteristics.

Nowadays, in the Balkans, we can find a favorable ground for nationalist, religious or
ethnic enthusiasm as a result of often violent conflicts.
The most important ethnicities of the Balkan region are the Greeks (10.9 million), the
Turks (9.1 million in the European part of Turkey), the Serbs (8.6 million), the Bulgarians (7
million), the Albanians (6 million, 3.6 million in Albania), Croats (4.6 million), Bosnians (2.5
million), Macedonians (1.5 million), Montenegrins (0.266 million) and Hungarians in former
Yugoslavia. We also find other national minorities such as the Gagauz, the Vlachs, and
“sărăcăcianii”, a population of Macedonian origin, speaking a language derived from vulgar
Latin.
Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism and Islam are the main religions of the region. Each
Orthodox country has its own autocephalous national church, and each faith has different local
traditions.
According to Oleg Serebrian3, political scientist, writer, diplomat and Moldovan
politician, there are potential conflicts within the Balkan area (Bulgarian-Greek, Bulgarian-
Turkish, Bulgarian-Romanian, Greek-Albanian, Serbo-Serbian), and passive ones (Serbo-
Albanian, Serbo-Croat, Greek-Turkish, Hungarian-Romanian, Macedonian).
Although the Balkans are the second region of conflict, in the world, according to the
Caucasus region, it is appreciated, considering a lot of factors, that the Balkans are by far the
most sensitive place where conflicts of any nature can occur anytime. Conflicts in this area do
not turn on impulsively overnight, but the cause is the build-up of tension over time.
The ethnic conflict existed at all times, embodying different forms, but has never
manifested itself so visibly, being, in some ways, an innovation of the modern age. Lately, global
trend is the disappearance of borders, to form a single territory, a single nation. These tendency,
however, often generate conflicting states, stemming mainly from the feeling of preserving the
national identity. In the context of a global economic crisis that has left traces for a long time,

3
„Va exploda Estul? Geopolitica spaţiului pontic, Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, p. 88-92
some ethnic conflicts in the Balkans have also grown, which were otherwise latent. Surprisingly
is the fact that these conflicts appeared in a time of European integration.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, after years of conflict, the situation is not yet completely
stabilized: the waiver of the conflict was only the result of the enormous investments made by
the EU and the Muslim states, but whenever it can be ignited again on ethnic grounds. At the
general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a central government was struggling to form,
which was not supported by parties interested only in not losing the international financial funds.
In the post-communist elections, in 1990, the new ethnic parties had the most votes. Thus, with
the agreement of the first three parties, Alija Izetbegovic becomes the country's president, the
Croatian Jure Pelivan, Prime Minister, and Serbian President, Momcilo Krajsnic. The leaders of
Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia gathered in Dayton in 1995, where they signed the General
Framework Agreement for Peace. Bosnia has remained a unitary state, divided to the present day
in three entities: Muslim, Croatian and Serbian. Croats, along with Muslims, received 51% of the
territory while Serbs earned 49%.
Kosovo remains by far one of the most controversial countries in Europe and the world.
The Kosovo region celebrated in 2018, its first 10 years of independence. This independence is a
success for the European Union's foreign policy that began in the late 90s. Brussels has provided
a platform for dialogue that is a "state-building" mechanism for both Kosovo and Serbia, given
that this process is still ongoing. The Kosovo Statistics Office described in 2011 the ethnic
structure of the population as follows: 92% Albanians, 4% Serbs, 4% Other ethnicities (Bosnian,
Gorani, Roma, Christian, Egyptian and Turkish).
The dispute between Greece and Macedonia "The former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia (FYROM, English)" is based on the fact that Greece does not recognize the name of
Macedonia, considering it belongs to its historical and cultural heritage. It believes Macedonia is
the name of its northern province and therefore claims the legacy of the ancient kings. Athens
blocked any prospect of Macedonia joining the European Union or NATO until 2018 when an
agreement between the two states was signed in Prespes, in northern Greece.
Bosnia, Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia are not hostile states, but their relations are not
simple due to their complicated histories.
Among the main characteristics of the Balkan area we can also list the following: the
existence of a conflict of the different groups from within, as a result of the troubled history of
the past; the tense situation between the four civilizations (Greek, Muslim, Macedonian, and
Slavic) who live in the area; the stronger economic development of some countries than others;
the political and strategic interests of the various outside powers; the deep traces left by the wars
deployed here; the strategic territory effect developed since the Cold War, etc.
In Europe and in the Balkans, in the conditions of cultural unification and often historical
coexistence, the phenomenon of mixed marriages and other determinants, the brand element of
the national identity is exclusively the native language, the other elements like tradition, culture,
port, being often forgotten.
Ethnic conflicts, kept under the pressure of majority political and social behavior, no
longer have the same visibility as in the last century. We can see that this is a remarkable
breakthrough, but we must not lose sight of possible conflicts, regardless of their nature.
When a mutually enforced ethnic conflict becomes an active one and diplomatic efforts
do not give the desired results, it manifests itself in the streets, becoming violent, lasting for
years until the situation stabilizes. Looking from the point of view of the inhabitants of the
conflict zones, they have the choice, or sometimes they are forced, to stay in the conflict zone or
to go to other places. Persons leaving the conflict area then acquire one of the following statuses:
refugees, internally displaced persons (IDP's), returnees, stateless persons and other people of
interest. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) ,annually, publishes a report with clear data about
them and how the International Organizations are all bidding to protect and improve the lives of
tens of millions of people in one of the situations listed above.
At the same time, the efforts made by the international community to continue the process
of sustainable peace in the region, to assist the population in the process of social reintegration,
building cohesion and stabilizing the community, are also being carried out by the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) which has attributions in this field.
The IOM's belief that regulated migration brings benefits for both migrants and society,
has consistently gained international recognition.

The Role and Impact of International Organizations (IO)

Greece is a member of the European Union since 1981, Cyprus and Slovenia are members
since 2004 and Romania and Bulgaria became EU members in 2007. Croatia has also become a
member of the EU in 2013. Turkey has requested admission in 1963, until now, negotiations
have not begun, although some agreements have been signed. Bulgaria, Slovenia and Romania
have joined NATO since 2004, and Croatia joined NATO in 2009 along with Albania. All other
countries have expressed their willingness to enter the EU in the future.
In the Balkans conflict zone, International Organizations (IOs) are present in different
forms and structures to ensure peace in the region through various mechanisms. Thus we find the
United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe and other important agencies and
structures.
For example, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is
the interim civilian administration in Kosovo under the authority of the United Nations. The
mission was initiated on 10 June 1999 by Security Council Resolution 1244. Operation Althea,
the European Union Force (EUFOR) formally in Bosnia and Herzegovina, aims to oversee the
implementation of the Dayton Agreement.
Among the largest OSCE field operations, the Kosovo Mission carries out a wide range of
activities, supporting the functioning of democratic institutions and civic participation in
decision-making and the promotion of human rights and the rule of law.
Conclusions
It is imperative to openly recognize potential sources of conflict and their sublimation,
which can only be done by diminishing tensions in the political area. As long as a conflict,
irrespective of its nature, becomes part of the institutionalized debate, it has the chance to remain
in the discursive and allegorical plan. Truly dangerous is the conflict that goes down in the
streets, where the result is no longer predictable and tends to become violent.
The world is in a continuous movement, with a speed that is noticeably accelerated.
Populations are trying to build a common future without frontiers but at the same time fearing
each other. Information, network, knowledge and high technology make irreversible progress
and pave the way for globalization and universalization.
One can take into account the fact that at one point, all Balkan states will sign an
agreement abolishing borders, ethnicities and embargoes. But that would be idealistic. Surely
nobody will be able to dismantle the feelings, the memory and the roots of life. And life in the
Balkans has been, is, and is likely to remain, for a long time, confrontational, tumultuous but
beautiful.
In a future study I propose to analyze the immediate and long-term effects of the
intervention of the International Organizations in the Balkan space.

BIBLIOGRAFHY
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4. http://iss.ucdc.ro/studii-pdf/Spatiul%20balcanic.pdf
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6. UNHCR, Global Report, 2017