[PDF] Balkan Currents eBook

Author : Lawrence A. Tritle
Publisher : Loyola Marymount University & the Department of English
Page : 168 pages
File Size : 48,14 MB
Release : 1998
Category : History
ISBN :

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Delving into the troubled history of the Balkan Peninsula, this collection of essays does not shy away from the difficult issues. Seven papers by noted specialists in this region (Charles A. Frazee, Thomas A. Emmert, Snjezana Buzov, Veniamin Karakostanoglou, Basil Kondis, Spyridon Sfetas, and Stephen K. Batalden) ponder the larger implications of this fractured part of the European map. At the confluence of two continents and three major religions, the Balkans are often overlooked until the media calls attention to the troubles of the region. This book contains essays on the religious, ethnic, and political element in the conflict. Particularly timely, considerations of Kosovo's status and the continuing crisis of what used to be called Yugoslavia are directly engaged in this study. This collection is must-read material for those interested in the history and culture of this troubled society.

Author : Maria N. Todorova
Publisher : Central European University Press
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 13,52 MB
Release : 2006-05-10
Category : History
ISBN : 6155053863

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This study, which is an updated, extended, and revised version of the out-of-print 1993 edition, reassesses the traditional stereotype of the place of the Balkans in the model of the European family in the nineteenth century on the basis of new source material and by synthesizing existing research. The work first analyzes family structure and demographic variables as they appear in population registers and other sources, and the impact of these findings on theoretical syntheses of the European family pattern. On most features, such as population structure, marriage and nuptiality, birth and fertility, death and mortality rates, family and household size and structure, as well as inheritance patterns, the Balkans show an enormous deal of internal variety. This variability is put in a comparative European context by matching the quantifiable results with comparable figures and patterns in other parts of Europe. The second section of the book is a contribution to the long-standing debate over the zadruga, the complex, collective, joint or extended family in the Balkans. Finally, the book considers ideology and mythology and the ways it has adversely affected scholarship on the family, and broadly on population history.

Author : Pinar Yürür
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 327 pages
File Size : 32,42 MB
Release : 2020-10-27
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1498599206

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The situation in the Balkans, such as the solution to the status of Kosovo, is currently the largest international political problem in Europe, with the potential to burst into a world crisis regarding the Eastern - Western relations. On the other hand, a successful solution to the problem in the Balkans could serve as a model for solving the Muslim - Christian tensions elsewhere in the world. It is the intention of this book to contribute proposals for solutions to the problems of Balkans. The starting principle for the solutions to be effective is that they should come in a natural way from the people below and should not be enforced by the political elites from above. Based on self-determination of nations as a starting principle, they should encourage intra-regional cooperation among the regional entities (economic, cultural, sport, as a basis for political, social understanding and cooperation); secondly, accelerate their economic, political and social development and thirdly, as a final step enable the inclusion of the Balkan countries into the European Union.

Author : Ina Merdjanova
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 217 pages
File Size : 12,39 MB
Release : 2016
Category : History
ISBN : 0190462507

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This book discusses the role of Islam in the political and social developments in the Balkans after the fall of communism. It explores comparatively the transformations of Muslim identities under the influence of various national and transnational, domestic and global factors.

Author : Kapka Kassabova
Publisher : Graywolf Press
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 10,85 MB
Release : 2020-08-04
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 1644451247

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The celebrated author of Border explores a mysterious, ancient, and little-understood corner of Europe Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa. Two ancient lakes joined by underground rivers. Two lakes that seem to hold both the turbulent memories of the region’s past and the secret of its enduring allure. Two lakes that have played a central role in Kapka Kassabova’s maternal family. As she journeys to her grandmother’s place of origin, Kassabova encounters a historic crossroads. The lakes are set within the mountainous borderlands of North Macedonia, Albania, and Greece, and crowned by the old Via Egnatia, which once connected Rome to Constantinople. A former trading and spiritual nexus of the southern Balkans, this lake region remains one of Eurasia’s most diverse corners. Meanwhile, with their remote rock churches, changeable currents, and large population of migratory birds, the lakes live in their own time. By exploring on water and land the stories of poets, fishermen, and caretakers, misfits, rulers, and inheritors of war and exile, Kassabova uncovers the human destinies shaped by the lakes. Setting out to resolve her own ancestral legacy, Kassabova locates a deeper inquiry into how geography and politics imprint themselves upon families and nations, one that confronts her with universal questions about human suffering and the capacity for change.

Author : Christopher Deliso
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 42,43 MB
Release : 2007-06-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0275995267

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The Balkans—the gateway between East and West—are also Europe's soft underbelly, a rough neighborhood where organized crime and terrorism present a constant threat. This eye-opening book details how 15 years of misguided Western interventions, political scheming, and local mafia appeasement, compounded by a massive infusion of Arab cash, fundamentalist Islamic preaching and mosque-building have allowed radical Islamic groups to fill in the cracks between internal ethnic and religious schisms and take root in key areas of the Balkans. With all eyes currently focused on the widening conflict in the Middle East and the terrorist threat coming from the region, the West is in danger of overlooking a potent new battleground in the greater war on terror—the Balkans. This historically volatile region saw some of the worst violence of the late 20th century in the Yugoslav Wars of Secession. During these conflicts, stunningly shortsighted and politically motivated policies of the United States and its allies directly allowed Islamic mujahedin and terrorist-related entities to establish a foothold in the region—just as with the progenitors of the Taliban a decade earlier in Afghanistan. Although the 9/11 attacks caused a partial reassessment of Western policy, it may already be too late for a region still largely ignored. The proliferation of foreign fundamentalist groups has had a cancerous effect on traditional Balkan Islamic communities, challenging their legitimacy in unprecedented and often violent ways. Well-funded groups like the Saudi-backed Wahabbis continue to exploit internal schisms within local communities, while the international administrations in Bosnia and Kosovo have actually strengthened the grip of local mafia groups—business partners of terrorists. Worst of all, the Western peacekeepers' chronic don't rock the boat mentality has allowed extremist groups to operate unchallenged. Nevertheless, regional demographic and cultural trends, coinciding with an increasingly hostile attitude in the larger Muslim world over Western military actions and perceived symbolic provocations, indicate that the lawless Balkans will become increasingly valuable as a strategic base for Islamic radicals over the next two decades. Utilizing the post-al-Qaeda tactics of a decentralized jihad carried out through small, independent cells (leaderless resistance) while seeking to fundamentally and violently remold Muslim societies, such Balkan-based extremists pose a unique and tangible threat to Western security.

Author : Klaus Roth
Publisher : LIT Verlag Münster
Page : 411 pages
File Size : 42,64 MB
Release : 2016
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 364390763X

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Southeast Europe's history of the last two centuries is marked by deep transformations and upheavals: the emergence and disappearance of states; ethnic conflicts and wars; changes of political systems; economic crises; migration movements; and natural disasters. Most of these upheavals have been experienced as deep crises forcing people to adapt to often radically new situations. This can cause crisis management to become a permanent way of life. The book focuses on the cultures of crisis. It analyzes the reactions of societies or individuals to them, their impact on everyday life, on peoples' strategies of coping, on the processes of adaptation, and on peoples' attitudes. Focus is placed on crises relating to migration and post-socialist transformation, to politics and religion, and to labour relations. (Series: Ethnologia Balkanica, Vol. 18) [Subject: Sociology, Southeast European Studies, Politics]Ã?Â?Ã?Â?