Identity and Conflict in the Balkans

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Identity and Conflict in the Balkans

• Seventh Week, Tuesday

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Announcements

• Exams and papers on Thursday
• Lecture, film showing last Thursday

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Religion in Romania

• Christianity (Orthodoxy, Protestantism,
  Catholicism)

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Hall, Part I

• How do Croats regard Slovenes?
• How do Croats regard Serbs?
• Attitudes change, relations change toward the end
  of the section
• What happened?

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Hall, Part II

• What is it like for Hall as he enters Serbia?
• What is Serbia like?
• How does Halls account differ from Kaplans?
• Beograd so much history, so much destruction

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Serbia long literary and cultural heritage

• Cultural-political meaning lost battle must be
  avenged forces of good vs. evil
• Be patient accept suffering revolt redemption

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Macedonia Ottoman Occupation in the Background

• Conquered in 1389
• 19th century Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria make
  claims on Macedonian territory
• Independence movements around turn of century
  (1900)
• Partitioned by Treaty of London in 1913 Greece,
  Bulgaria, Serbia, and Albania

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Before and After Partition (1913)
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Post-WWI

• Greece actively promoting Greek-ness of
  Macedonia
• Numerous independence activities
• WWII Nazi Bulgaria occupied Macedonia
• Resistance efforts independent Macedonia (in
  part)
• Not recognized by Greece

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Republic of Macedonia 1991

• Name issues with Greece
• Officially The Former Yugoslav Republic of
  Macedonia
• Problems with Albania too origins, original
  territory rights
• Refugee problems

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Leaders Today

• President Branko Crvenkovski
• Prime minister Vlado Buckovski

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Skopje Bridge over Vardar
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Churches
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Mosques
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Film Before the Rain

• "Before the Rain refers to the feeling of heavy
  expectation, when the skies are pregnant with the
  possibility of an outburst, when the people are
  silent, waiting for a tragedy of cleansing,"
  writer/director Milcho Manchevski
• 1994 directed by Milcho Manchevski
• Rade erbedia
• Macedonia-Great Britain

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Milcho Manchevski
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Film Before the Rain

• Novice Kiril discovers visitor
• Murder suspect-fugitive-Albanian
• Relatives of victimsearch
• Violence
• Suspense

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Eastern Orthodoxy

• Orthodox churches
• Icons, iconostasis
• Monastic life
• Macedonian setting

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Language and culture differences

• Macedonian Orthodox
• Macedonian Muslim/Albanian
• Different languages
• Peaceful coexistence?
• Identity language, religious label (not
  doctrine), heritage

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Human message (so far)

• Violence close to the surface
• Children, ninja games, bullets in the fire
• Macedonian men seeking revenge random violence
  (against cat)
• Rain coming
• Garden provides sustenance (tomatoes given to
  girl)
• Monks offer protection

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Film

• Narrative devices
• Unconventional chronology

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Rain-2

• Kiril and Zamira are discovered
• Kiril is kicked out of the monastery
• Kiril and Zemfira leave together
• Zemfiras grandfather and brothers/cousins find
  them
• Zemfira tries to leave with Kiril and is killed
  by her brother

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Rain 3

• Section section (Faces first was Words)
• Anne showers, weeping
• Anne finds out shes pregnant
• Anne meets her mother
• Alexander joins them
• Alex and Anne in the taxi

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Rain 4

• Be ready for narrative surprises, shifts in
  chronology
• Violence continues why?

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Hall

• Why is the country impossible?
• How do the young people he meets illustrate all
  this?

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Hall in Sarajevo, Bosnia Part III

• Ethnic mix distinctive because of religious, not
  linguistic base
• More intense ethnic feeling
• Croats, Serbs, Muslims
• Muslims converted by Turks
• Cosmopolitan center Sarajevo
• Recent book by Bill Carter Fools Rush In

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More identity examples

• Croat family
• Young men and families in Sarajevo

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Encounters with Izetbegovic
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Serbian Orthodox Church (Sarajevo)
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Jewish Cemetery
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Inside Sarajevo Synagogue
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Bey Mosque in Sarajevo
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Assassination of Archduke 1914
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Time Line

• December 9, 1990 -- Miloevic elected president
  in Serbia's first multi-party election since
  World War II
• May events
• Borovo Selo incident
• Yugoslavia to ratify new president of the
  Presidency (see Hall p. 45)
• June 25, 1991 -- Croatia and Slovenia proclaim
  independence

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Results of independence movements

• June 1991 -- Yugoslav tanks fail to crush
  Slovenian independence. Fighting begins in
  Croatia between Croats and ethnic Serbs.
• December 19, 1991 -- Rebel Serbs declare
  independence in Krajina region which makes up
  almost a third of Croatia.
• December 1991 -- In Bosnia, the most ethnically
  mixed Yugoslav republic, Serb minority holds
  unofficial referendum opposing separation from
  Yugoslavia. Local Serb leaders proclaim new
  republic separate from Bosnia

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1992-93

• January 1992 -- U.N. forces enter Croatia and
  fighting subsides.
• February 29 - March 1, 1992 -- Bosnia's Muslims
  and Croats vote for independence in referendum
  boycotted by Serbs.
• April 6, 1992 -- War breaks out between Bosnian
  government and local Serbs, who start 1992-1995
  siege of capital Sarajevo.
• January 1993 -- Bosnia peace efforts fail, war
  breaks out between Muslims and Croats, previously
  allied against Serbs.

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1994-95

• 1995 -- Two major thrusts by Croatian forces
  recover most of Serb-held territory and 150,000
  Serbs flee to Serbia.
• November 21, 1995 -- Following NATO air strikes
  against Bosnian Serbs, Miloevic joins presidents
  of Bosnia and Croatia in peace agreement at
  U.S.-sponsored talks at Dayton, Ohio

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Progress since 1995?

• Divided Bosnia
• ICTY indicts and convicts
• 2003 EU takes over policing from UN
• 2004 Peacekeeping handed over to EUFor
• Bridge at Mostar rebuilt

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Dayton Map