Coordinates: 42°N 22°E

Balkans

The Balkans /ˈbɔːlkənz/ BAWL-kənz, also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographic area in Southeast
Balkans
Europe with various definitions and meanings,[2][3] including geopolitical and historical.[4] The region takes its
name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria from the Serbian–Bulgarian border
to the Black Sea coast. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the
southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish Straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The
northern border of the peninsula is variously defined.[5] The highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala, 2,925
metres (9,596 ft), in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria.

The concept of the Balkan peninsula was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808,[6] who
mistakenly considered the Balkan Mountains the dominant mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from
the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. The term of Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for Rumelia (European Turkey) in The Balkan states according to
the 19th century, the former provinces of the Ottoman Empire in Southeast Europe. It had a geopolitical rather than Encyclopædia Britannica
a geographical definition, further promoted during the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the early 20th The Balkan Peninsula using the
century. The definition of the Balkan peninsula's natural borders do not coincide with the technical definition of a Danube–Sava–Soča border
peninsula and hence modern geographers reject the idea of a Balkan peninsula, while scholars usually discuss the Political communities that are included
Balkans as a region. The term has acquired a stigmatized and pejorative meaning related to the process of in the Balkans.[1]
Balkanization,[5][7] and hence the preferred alternative term used for the region is Southeast Europe. Political communities that are often
included in the Balkans.[1]
Geography

Contents Location Southeast Europe

Coordinates 42°N 22°E
Name
Etymology Area 470,000 km2
Historical names and meaning (180,000 sq mi)
Classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages Highest elevation 2,925 m (9,596 ft)
Late Middle Ages and Ottoman period Highest point Musala (Bulgaria)
Evolution of meaning in 19th and 20th century Administration
Southeast Europe
See below
Current
Demographics
Definitions and boundaries
Balkan Peninsula Population ca. 55 million

Balkans
Western Balkans
Criticism of the geographical definition
Nature and natural resources
History and geopolitical significance
Antiquity
Early modern period
Recent history
World Wars
Cold War
Post–Cold War
Politics and economy
Regional organizations
Statistics
Demographics
Religion
Languages
Urbanization
Time zones
Culture
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Name

Etymology
The word Balkan comes from Ottoman Turkish balkan 'chain of wooded mountains';[8][9] related words are also found in other Turkic languages.[10] The origin
of the Turkic word is obscure; it may be related to Persian bālk 'mud', and the Turkish suffix an 'swampy forest'[11] or Persian balā-khāna 'big high house'.[12]

Historical names and meaning

Classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages

From classical antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains were called by the local Thracian[13] name "Haemus".[14] According to Greek
mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment and the mountain has remained with his name. A reverse name
scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus (Αἷμος) is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain ridge'.[15] A third possibility is
that "Haemus" (Αἵμος) derives from the Greek word "haima" (αἷμα) meaning 'blood'. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon.
Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhon's blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name.[16]

Late Middle Ages and Ottoman period

The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, in which the Haemus mountains are referred to as Balkan.[17] The first attested
time the name "Balkan" was used in the West for the mountain range in Bulgaria was in a letter sent in 1490 to Pope Innocent VIII by Buonaccorsi Callimaco,
an Italian humanist, writer and diplomat.[18] The Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565.[12] There has been no other documented usage of
the word to refer to the region before that, although other Turkic tribes had already settled in or were passing through the region.[12] There is also a claim about
an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion.[12] The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia
in its general meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲ ja-Balkan,
̲ Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkanı̊, but especially it was applied to the Haemus mountain.[19][20] The
name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary (Balkan Mountains)[21] and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. English traveler John Morritt
introduced this term into the English literature at the end of the 18th-century, and other authors started applying the name to the wider area between the Adriatic
and the Black Sea. The concept of the "Balkans" was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808,[22] who mistakenly considered it as the
dominant central mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea.[23][24][5] During the 1820s, "Balkan became the
preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers... Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan
was the preferred term".[25]

Evolution of meaning in 19th and 20th century

The term was not commonly used in geographical literature until the mid-19th century because already then scientists like Carl Ritter warned that only the part
South of the Balkan Mountains can be considered as a peninsula and considered it to be renamed as "Greek peninsula". Other prominent geographers who
didn't agree with Zeune were Hermann Wagner, Theobald Fischer, Marion Newbigin, Albrecht Penck, while Austrian diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn in
1869 for the same territory used the term Südostereuropäische Halbinsel ("Southeasterneuropean peninsula"). Another reason it was not commonly accepted as
the definition of then European Turkey had a similar land extent. However, after the Congress of Berlin (1878) there was a political need for a new term and
gradually the Balkans was revitalized, but in the maps the northern border was in Serbia and Montenegro without Greece (it only depicted the Ottoman
occupied parts of Europe), while Yugoslavian maps also included Croatia and Bosnia. The term Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for European Turkey, the
political borders of former Ottoman Empire provinces.[5][24][26]

The usage of the term changed in the very end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century when was embraced by Serbian geographers, most prominently by
Jovan Cvijić.[23] It was done with political reasoning as affirmation for Serbian nationalism on the whole territory of the South Slavs, and also included
anthropological and ethnological studies of the South Slavs through which were claimed various nationalistic and racialist theories.[23] Through such policies
and Yugoslavian maps the term was elevated to the modern status of a geographical region.[24] The term acquired political nationalistic connotations far from
its initial geographic meaning,[5] arising from political changes from the late 19th century to the creation of post–World War I Yugoslavia (initially the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918).[24] After the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term "Balkans" acquired a negative
political meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, as well in worldwide casual usage for war conflicts and fragmentation of a territory (see
Balkanization).[23][24]

Southeast Europe
In part due to the historical and political connotations of the term "Balkans",[27] especially since the military conflicts of the 1990s in Yugoslavia in the western
half of the region, the term "Southeast Europe" is becoming increasingly popular.[24][28] A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for
South Eastern Europe, and the online newspaper Balkan Times renamed itself Southeast European Times in 2003.

Current
In other languages of the region, the region is known as:

Slavic languages:
Bulgarian and Macedonian: Балкански Полуостров, transliterated: Balkanski Poluostrov
Serbian: Балканско полуострво; Balkansko poluostrvo
Bosnian: Balkansko poluostrvo; Балканско полуострво; Balkanski poluotok
Croatian: Balkanski poluotok
Slovene: Balkanski polotok
Romance languages:
Romanian (including Moldovan): Peninsula Balcanică
Turkic Languages:
Turkish: Balkan Yarımadası or Balkanlar
Other languages:
Albanian: Gadishulli Ballkanik and Siujdhesa e Ballkanit
 Greek: Βαλκανική χερσόνησος, transliterated: Valkaniki chersonisos

Definitions and boundaries

Balkan Peninsula
The Balkan Peninsula is bounded by the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea (including the Ionian and
Aegean seas) and the Marmara Sea to the south and the Black Sea to the east. Its northern boundary is often given as the
Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers.[29][30] The Balkan Peninsula has a combined area of about 470,000 km2
(181,000 sq mi) (slightly smaller than Spain). It is more or less identical to the region known as Southeast
Europe.[31][32][33]

From 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria and some Dalmatian areas (like Zara, today's Zadar) that are within
the general definition of the Balkan peninsula. The current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste
inside the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by
Italian geographers, due to their definition of the Balkans that limits its western border to the Kupa River.[34]
The Balkan Peninsula, as defined by
Share of total area in brackets[35] within the Balkan Peninsula by country, by the Danube-Sava definition, with Bulgaria the Soča–Vipava–Krka–Sava–
and Greece occupying almost the half of the territory of the Balkan Peninsula, with around 23% of the total area each: Danube border.

Entirely within the Balkan peninsula:

Albania: 28,749 km2 (100% of total land)

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 51,180 km2 (100%)
Bulgaria: 110,993.6[36][37]/ according to other sources 111,002 km2[38](100%)
Kosovo[a]: 10,908 km2 (100%)
Montenegro: 13,810 km2 (100%)
North Macedonia: 25,710 km2 (100%)
Mostly or partially within the Balkan peninsula:

Croatia (southern mainland): 24,013 km2 (46%)[39][40]

The Peninsula's most extensive
Greece (mainland): 110,496 km2 (83.7%)/ according to other sources 106,247 km2[41] (80,5%)/ definition, bordered by water on three
126,023 km2 including islands adjacent to the Balkan Peninsula (95,5%) sides and connected with a line on
Italy (Trieste and Monfalcone): 200 km2 (0.1%) the fourth

Romania (mainland Dobruja): 11,000 km2 (5%)

Serbia (Central Serbia) 51,000 km2 (65%)
Slovenia (southwestern part): 5,000 km2 (25%)
Turkey (European part): 23,764 km2 (3%)

Balkans
The term "the Balkans" is used more generally for the region; it includes states in the region, which may extend beyond the peninsula, and is not defined by the
geography of the peninsula itself.

Historians state the Balkans comprise Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo[a], Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania,
Serbia, and Slovenia.[42][43][44] Its total area is usually given as 666,700 km2 (257,400 sq mi) and the population as 59,297,000 (est. 2002).[43] Italy, although
having a small part of its territory in the Balkan peninsula, is not included in the term "the Balkans".

The term Southeast Europe is also used for the region, with various definitions. Individual Balkan states can also be considered part of other regions, including
Southern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Europe. Turkey, often including its European territory, is also included in Western or Southwestern Asia.

Western Balkans
Western Balkans is a political neologism coined to refer to Albania and the territory of the former Yugoslavia, except
Slovenia, since the early 1990s.[e] The region of the Western Balkans, a coinage exclusively used in Pan-European
parlance, roughly corresponds to the Dinaric Alps territory.

The institutions of the European Union have generally used the term "Western Balkans" to mean the Balkan area that
includes countries that are not members of the European Union, while others refer to the geographical aspects.[d] Each
of these countries aims to be part of the future enlargement of the European Union and reach democracy and
transmission scores but, until then, they will be strongly connected with the pre-EU waiting program CEFTA.[45]
Croatia, considered part of the Western Balkans, joined the EU in July 2013.[46]

Criticism of the geographical definition Western Balkan countries – Albania,

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
The term is criticized for having a geopolitical, rather than a geographical meaning and definition, as a multiethnic and Montenegro, North Macedonia and
political area in the southeastern part of Europe.[24] The geographical term of a peninsula defines that the water border Serbia. The partially recognized
must be longer than land, with the land side being the shortest in the triangle, but that is not the case with the Balkan Kosovo is also demarcated. Croatia
Peninsula.[23][24] Both Eastern and Western water cathetus from Odessa to Cape Matapan (ca. 1230–1350 km) and from (yellow) joined the EU in 2013.
Trieste to Cape Matapan (ca. 1270–1285 km) are shorter than land cathetus from Trieste to Odessa (ca. 1330–
1365 km).[23][24] The land has a too wide line connected to the continent to be technically proclaimed as a peninsula - Szczecin (920 km) and Rostock
(950 km) at the Baltic Sea are closer to Trieste than Odessa yet it is not considered as another European peninsula.[23] Since the late 19th and early 20th-
century literature is not known where is exactly the northern border between the peninsula and the continent,[23][24] with an issue, whether the rivers are
suitable for its definition.[5] In the studies the Balkans natural borders, especially the northern border, are often avoided to be addressed, considered as a
"fastidious problem" by André Blanc in Geography of the Balkans (1965), while John Lampe and Marvin Jackman in Balkan Economic History (1971) noted
that "modern geographers seem agreed in rejecting the old idea of a Balkan Peninsula".[5] Another issue is the name because the Balkan Mountains which are
mostly located in Northern Bulgaria are not dominating the region by length and area like the Dinaric Alps.[23] An eventual Balkan peninsula can be considered
a territory South of the Balkan Mountains, with a possible name "Greek-Albanian Peninsula." [5][24] The term influenced the meaning of Southeast Europe
which again is not properly defined by geographical factors yet historical borders of the Balkans.[24]

Croatian geographers and academics are highly critical of inclusion of Croatia within the broad geographical, social-political and historical context of the
Balkans, while the neologism Western Balkans is perceived as a humiliation of Croatia by the European political powers.[23] According to M. S. Altić, the term
has two different meanings, "geographical, ultimately undefined, and cultural, extremely negative, and recently strongly motivated by the contemporary
political context".[24] In 2018, President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović stated that the use of the term "Western Balkans" should be avoided because it
doesn't imply only a geographic area, but also negative connotations, and instead must be perceived as and called Southeast Europe because it is part of
Europe.[47]

As the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek put it,[48]

This very alibi confronts us with the first of many paradoxes concerning Balkan: its geographic delimitation was never precise. It is as if one can
never receive a definitive answer to the question, "Where does it begin?" For Serbs, it begins down there in Kosovo or Bosnia, and they defend the
Christian civilization against this Europe's Other. For Croats, it begins with the Orthodox, despotic, Byzantine Serbia, against which Croatia
defends the values of democratic Western civilization. For Slovenes, it begins with Croatia, and we Slovenes are the last outpost of the peaceful
Mitteleuropa. For Italians and Austrians, it begins with Slovenia, where the reign of the Slavic hordes starts. For Germans, Austria itself, on
account of its historic connections, is already tainted by the Balkanic corruption and inefficiency. For some arrogant Frenchmen, Germany is
associated with the Balkanian Eastern savagery — up to the extreme case of some conservative anti-European-Union Englishmen for whom, in an
implicit way, it is ultimately the whole of continental Europe itself that functions as a kind of Balkan Turkish global empire with Brussels as the
new Constantinople, the capricious despotic center threatening English freedom and sovereignty. So Balkan is always the Other: it lies somewhere
else, always a little bit more to the southeast, with the paradox that, when we reach the very bottom of the Balkan peninsula, we again magically
escape Balkan. Greece is no longer Balkan proper, but the cradle of our Western civilization.

Nature and natural resources

Most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from the northwest to southeast. The main ranges are the
Balkan mountains (Stara Planina in Bulgarian language), running from the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria to the border
with Serbia, the Rilo-Rhodope massif in southern Bulgaria, northern Greece and southeastern North Macedonia, the
Dinaric Alps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro, the Šar massif which spreads from Albania to North
Macedonia, and the Pindus range, spanning from southern Albania into central Greece and the Albanian Alps. The
highest mountain of the region is Rila in Bulgaria, with Musala at 2925 m, Mount Olympus in Greece, being second at
2917 m and Vihren in Bulgaria being the third at 2914 m. The karst field or polje is a common feature of the landscape.

On the Adriatic and Aegean coasts the climate is Mediterranean, on the Black Sea coast the climate is humid Panorama of Stara Planina. Its
subtropical and oceanic, and inland it is humid continental. In the northern part of the peninsula and on the mountains, highest peak is Botev at a height of
2,376 m.
winters are frosty and snowy, while summers are hot and dry. In the southern part winters are milder. The humid
continental climate is predominant in Bosnia and Herzegovina, northern Croatia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, northern
Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, the interior of Albania and Serbia, while the other, less common
climates, the humid subtropical and oceanic climates, are seen on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and Balkan Turkey
(European Turkey); and the Mediterranean climate is seen on the coast of Albania, the coast of Croatia, Greece,
southern Montenegro and the Aegean coast of Balkan Turkey (European Turkey).

Over the centuries forests have been cut down and replaced with bush. In the southern part and on the coast there is
evergreen vegetation. Inland there are woods typical of Central Europe (oak and beech, and in the mountains, spruce, fir
and pine). The tree line in the mountains lies at the height of 1800–2300 m. The land provides habitats for numerous
endemic species, including extraordinarily abundant insects and reptiles that serve as food for a variety of birds of prey View toward Rila, the highest
mountain in the Balkans which
and rare vultures.
reaches 2925 m
The soils are generally poor, except on the plains, where areas with natural grass, fertile soils and warm summers
provide an opportunity for tillage. Elsewhere, land cultivation is mostly unsuccessful because of the mountains, hot
summers and poor soils, although certain cultures such as olive and grape flourish.

Resources of energy are scarce, except in Kosovo, where considerable coal, lead, zinc, chromium and silver deposits are
located.[49] Other deposits of coal, especially in Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia, also exist. Lignite deposits are widespread
in Greece. Petroleum scarce reserves exist in Greece, Serbia and Albania. Natural gas deposits are scarce. Hydropower
is in wide use, from over 1,000 dams. The often relentless bora wind is also being harnessed for power generation.

Metal ores are more usual than other raw materials. Iron ore is rare, but in some countries there is a considerable
amount of copper, zinc, tin, chromite, manganese, magnesite and bauxite. Some metals are exported. Lake Skadar, the largest lake in the
Balkan Peninsula

History and geopolitical significance

Antiquity
The Balkan region was the first area in Europe to experience the arrival of farming cultures in the Neolithic era. The
Balkans have been inhabited since the Paleolithic and are the route by which farming from the Middle East spread to
Europe during the Neolithic (7th millennium BC).[50][51] The practices of growing grain and raising livestock arrived in
the Balkans from the Fertile Crescent by way of Anatolia and spread west and north into Central Europe, particularly
through Pannonia. Two early culture-complexes have developed in the region, Starčevo culture and Vinča culture. The
Balkans are also the location of the first advanced civilizations. Vinča culture developed a form of proto-writing before
the Sumerians and Minoans, known as the Old European script, while the bulk of the symbols had been created in the
period between 4500 and 4000 BC, with the ones on the Tărtăria clay tablets even dating back to around 5300 BC.[52]

The identity of the Balkans is dominated by its geographical position; historically the area was known as a crossroads of
cultures. It has been a juncture between the Latin and Greek bodies of the Roman Empire, the destination of a massive
The Jireček Line
influx of pagan Bulgars and Slavs, an area where Orthodox and Catholic Christianity met,[53] as well as the meeting
point between Islam and Christianity.

In pre-classical and classical antiquity, this region was home to Greeks, Illyrians, Paeonians, Thracians, Dacians, and
other ancient groups. The Achaemenid Persian Empire incorporated parts of the Balkans comprising Macedonia,
Thrace, Bulgaria, and the Black Sea coastal region of Romania between the late 6th and the first half of the 5th-century
BC into its territories.[54] Later the Roman Empire conquered most of the region and spread Roman culture and the
Latin language, but significant parts still remained under classical Greek influence. The Romans considered the
Rhodope Mountains to be the northern limit of the Peninsula of Haemus and the same limit applied approximately to
the border between Greek and Latin use in the region (later called the Jireček Line).[55] However large spaces south of
Apollonia ruins near Fier, Albania.
Jireček Line were and are inhabited by Vlachs (Aromanians), the Romance-speaking heirs of Roman Empire.[56][57]
The Bulgars and Slavs arrived in the 6th-century and began assimilating and displacing already-assimilated (through
Romanization and Hellenization) older inhabitants of the northern and central Balkans, forming the Bulgarian
Empire.[58] During the Middle Ages, the Balkans became the stage for a series of wars between the Byzantine Roman
and the Bulgarian Empires.

Early modern period

By the end of the 16th-century, the Ottoman Empire had become the controlling force in the region after expanding
from Anatolia through Thrace to the Balkans. Many people in the Balkans place their greatest folk heroes in the era of
either the onslaught or the retreat of the Ottoman Empire.[59] As examples, for Greeks, Constantine XI Palaiologos and Pula Arena, the only remaining
Roman amphitheatre to have four
Kolokotronis; and for Serbs, Miloš Obilić and Tzar Lazar; for Montenegrins, Đurađ I Balšić and Ivan Crnojević; for
side towers and with all three Roman
Albanians, George Kastrioti Skanderbeg; for ethnic Macedonians, Nikola Karev[60] and Goce Delčev;[60] for architectural orders entirely
Bulgarians, Vasil Levski, Georgi Sava Rakovski and Hristo Botev and for Croats, Nikola Šubić Zrinjski. preserved.

In the past several centuries, because of the frequent Ottoman wars in Europe
fought in and around the Balkans and the comparative Ottoman isolation from
the mainstream of economic advance (reflecting the shift of Europe's
commercial and political centre of gravity towards the Atlantic), the Balkans
has been the least developed part of Europe. According to Halil İnalcık, "The
population of the Balkans, according to one estimate, fell from a high of 8
million in the late 16th-century to only 3 million by the mid-eighteenth. This
estimate is based on Ottoman documentary evidence."[61]

Most of the Balkan nation-states emerged during the 19th and early 20th
Modern political history of the Hagia Sophia, an Eastern Orthodox
centuries as they gained independence from the Ottoman Empire or the Austro- Christian cathedral built in the 6th-
Balkans from 1796 onwards.
Hungarian empire: Greece in 1821, Serbia, Montenegro in 1878, Romania in century in Constantinople (present-
1881, Bulgaria in 1908 and Albania in 1912. day Istanbul, Turkey), later an
imperial mosque, and now a
museum.
Recent history

World Wars
In 1912–1913 the First Balkan War broke out when the nation-states of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro united
in an alliance against the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the war, almost all remaining European territories of the
Ottoman Empire were captured and partitioned among the allies. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an
independent Albanian state. Bulgaria insisted on its status quo territorial integrity, divided and shared by the Great
Powers next to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) in other boundaries and on the pre-war Bulgarian-Serbian agreement.
Bulgaria was provoked by the backstage deals between its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on the allocation of the
spoils at the end of the First Balkan War. At the time, Bulgaria was fighting at the main Thracian Front. Bulgaria marks Tsarevets, a medieval stronghold in
the beginning of Second Balkan War when it attacked them. The Serbs and the Greeks repulsed single attacks, but when the former capital of the Bulgarian
the Greek army invaded Bulgaria together with an unprovoked Romanian intervention in the back, Bulgaria collapsed. Empire — Veliko Tarnovo.
The Ottoman Empire used the opportunity to recapture Eastern Thrace, establishing its new western borders that still
stand today as part of modern Turkey.

The First World War was sparked in the Balkans in 1914 when members of Young Bosnia, a revolutionary organization with predominantly Serb and pro-
Yugoslav members, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo. That caused a
war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which—through the existing chains of alliances—led to the First World War. The Ottoman Empire soon joined the
Central Powers becoming one of the three empires participating in that alliance. The next year Bulgaria joined the Central Powers attacking Serbia, which was
successfully fighting Austro-Hungary to the north for a year. That led to Serbia's defeat and the intervention of the Entente in the Balkans which sent an
expeditionary force to establish a new front, the third one of that war, which soon also became static. The participation of Greece in the war three years later, in
1918, on the part of the Entente finally altered the balance between the opponents leading to the collapse of the
common German-Bulgarian front there, which caused the exit of Bulgaria from the war, and in turn the collapse of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, ending the First World War.[63]

With the start of the Second World War, all Balkan countries, with the exception of Greece, were allies of Nazi
Germany, having bilateral military agreements or being part of the Axis Pact. Fascist Italy expanded the war in the
Balkans by using its protectorate Albania to invade Greece. After repelling the attack, the Greeks counterattacked,
invading Italy-held Albania and causing Nazi Germany's intervention in the Balkans to help its ally.[64] Days before the The 13th-century church of St. John
German invasion, a successful coup d'état in Belgrade by neutral military personnel seized power.[65] at Kaneo and the Ohrid Lake in North
Macedonia. The lake and town were
Although the new government reaffirmed Serbia's intentions to fulfill its obligations as a member of the Axis,[66] declared a World Heritage Site by
Germany, with Bulgaria, invaded both Greece and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia immediately disintegrated when those loyal UNESCO in 1980.
to the Serbian King and the Croatian units mutinied.[67] Greece resisted, but, after two months of fighting, collapsed
and was occupied. The two countries were partitioned between the three Axis allies, Bulgaria, Germany and Italy, and
the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of Italy and Germany.

During the occupation the population suffered considerable hardship due to repression and starvation, to which the
population reacted by creating a mass resistance movement.[68] Together with the early and extremely heavy winter of
that year (which caused hundreds of thousands deaths among the poorly fed population), the German invasion had
disastrous effects in the timetable of the planned invasion in Russia causing a significant delay,[69] which had major
consequences during the course of the war.[70]
Austro-Hungarian troops executing
Finally, at the end of 1944, the Soviets entered Romania and Bulgaria forcing the Germans out of the Balkans. They left
Serbian civilians, 1914. Serbia lost
behind a region largely ruined as a result of wartime exploitation. about 850,000 people during the war,
a quarter of its pre-war
population.[62]
Cold War
During the Cold War, most of the countries on the Balkans were governed by communist governments. Greece became
the first battleground of the emerging Cold War. The Truman Doctrine was the US response to the civil war, which raged from 1944 to 1949. This civil war,
unleashed by the Communist Party of Greece, backed by communist volunteers from neighboring countries (Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia), led to massive
American assistance for the non-communist Greek government. With this backing, Greece managed to defeat the partisans and, ultimately, remained the only
non-communist country in the region.

However, despite being under communist governments, Yugoslavia (1948) and Albania (1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, led by Marshal Josip
Broz Tito (1892–1980), first propped up then rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria and instead sought closer relations with the West, later even
spearheaded, together with India and Egypt the Non-Aligned Movement. Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist China, later adopting an
isolationist position.

As the only non-communist countries, Greece and Turkey were (and still are) part of NATO composing the southeastern wing of the alliance.

Post–Cold War
In the 1990s, the transition of the regions' ex-Eastern bloc countries towards democratic free-market societies went peacefully. While in the non-aligned
Yugoslavia, Wars between the former Yugoslav republics broke out after Slovenia and Croatia held free elections and their people voted for independence on
their respective countries' referenda. Serbia in turn declared the dissolution of the union as unconstitutional and the Yugoslavian army unsuccessfully tried to
maintain status quo. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991, followed by the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. Till October 1991, the Army
withdrew from Slovenia, and in Croatia, the Croatian War of Independence would continue until 1995. In the ensuing 10 years armed confrontation, gradually
all the other Republics declared independence, with Bosnia being the most affected by the fighting. The long lasting wars resulted in a United Nations
intervention and NATO ground and air forces took action against Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

From the dissolution of Yugoslavia six republics achieved international recognition as sovereign republics, but
these are traditionally included in Balkans: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia,
Montenegro and Serbia. In 2008, while under UN administration, Kosovo declared independence (according to the
official Serbian policy, Kosovo is still an internal autonomous region). In July 2010, the International Court of
Justice, ruled that the declaration of independence was legal.[71] Most UN member states recognise Kosovo. After
the end of the wars a revolution broke in Serbia and Slobodan Milošević, the Serbian communist leader (elected
president between 1989 and 2000), was overthrown and handed for trial to the International Criminal Tribunal for
crimes against the International Humanitarian Law during the Yugoslav wars. Milošević died of a heart attack in
2006 before a verdict could have been released. Ιn 2001 an Albanian uprising in North Macedonia forced the
State entities on the former territory of
country to give local autonomy to the ethnic Albanians in the areas where they predominate. Yugoslavia, 2008

With the dissolution of Yugoslavia an issue emerged over the name under which the former (federated) republic of
Macedonia would internationally be recognized, between the new country and Greece. Being the Macedonian part of Yugoslavia (see Vardar Macedonia), the
federated Republic under the Yugoslav identity had the name Republic of Macedonia on which it declared its sovereignty in 1991. Greece, having a large
region (see Macedonia) also under the same name opposed to the usage of this name as an indication of a nationality. The issue was resolved under UN
mediation and the Prespa agreement was reached, which saw the country's renaming into North Macedonia.

Balkan countries control the direct land routes between Western Europe and South West Asia (Asia Minor and the Middle East). Since 2000, all Balkan
countries are friendly towards the EU and the USA.[72]

Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981 while Slovenia is a member since 2004, Bulgaria and Romania are members since 2007, and
Croatia is a member since 2013. In 2005, the European Union decided to start accession negotiations with candidate countries; Turkey, and North Macedonia
were accepted as candidates for EU membership. In 2012, Montenegro started accession negotiations with the EU. In 2014, Albania is an official candidate for
accession to the EU. In 2015, Serbia was expected to start accession negotiations with the EU, however this process has been stalled over the recognition of
Kosovo as an independent state by existing EU member states.[73]

Greece and Turkey have been NATO members since 1952. In March 2004, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia have become members of NATO. As of April
2009,[74] Albania and Croatia are members of NATO. Montenegro joined in June 2017.[75]

All other countries have expressed a desire to join the EU or NATO at some point in the future.

Politics and economy

Currently all of the states are republics, but until World War II all countries were monarchies. Most of the republics are
parliamentary, excluding Romania and Bosnia which are semi-presidential. All the states have open market economies,
most of which are in the upper-middle income range ($4,000 – $12,000 p.c.), except Croatia, Romania, Greece and
Slovenia that have high income economies (over $12,000 p.c.), and are classified with very high HDI, along with
Bulgaria, in contrast to the remaining states, which are classified with high HDI. The states from the former Eastern
Bloc that formerly had planned economy system and Turkey mark gradual economic growth each year, only the
economy of Greece drops for 2012 and meanwhile it was expected to grow in 2013. The Gross domestic product
(Purchasing power parity) per capita is highest in Slovenia (over $36,000), followed by Greece (over $30,000), Croatia,
View from Santorini in Greece.
Bulgaria and Romania (over $23,000), Turkey, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia ($10,000 – $15,000) and Bosnia,
Tourism is an important part of the
Albania and Kosovo (below $10,000).[76] The Gini coefficient, which indicates the level of difference by monetary Greek economy.
welfare of the layers, is on the second level at the highest monetary equality in Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia, on the
third level in Greece, Montenegro and Romania, on the fourth level in North Macedonia, on the fifth level in Turkey,
and the most unequal by Gini coefficient is Bosnia at the eighth level which is the penultimate level and one of the
highest in the world. The unemployment is lowest in Romania and Bulgaria (below 6%), followed by Turkey, Albania
(10 – 15%), Greece (15 – 20%), Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia (20 – 30%), North Macedonia (over 30%) and Kosovo
(over 40%).

On political, social and economic criteria the divisions are as follows:

Territories members of the European Union: Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania and Slovenia
Territories currently in negotiation process for EU membership: Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey Dubrovnik in Croatia, UNESCO's
Territories official candidates for EU membership: Albania and North Macedonia World Heritage since 1979
Territories with "potential candidates" status for EU membership: Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Kosovo
On border control and trade criteria the divisions are as follows:
Territories in the Schengen Area: Greece and Slovenia
Territories that are legally bound to join the Schengen Area: Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania
Territories in a customs union with the EU: Turkey
Territories members of the Central European Free Trade Agreement: Albania, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
On currency criteria the divisions are as follows: Golden Sands, popular tourist
destination on Bulgarian coast
Territories members of the Eurozone: Greece and Slovenia
Territories using the Euro without authorization by the EU: Kosovo and Montenegro
Territories using national currencies and are candidates for the Eurozone: Bulgaria (lev), Croatia (kuna), Romania (leu)
Territories using national currencies: Albania (lek), Bosnia and Herzegovina (convertible mark), North Macedonia (denar), Serbia (dinar)
and Turkey (lira).
On military criteria the divisions are as follows:
Member territories of NATO: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia and
Turkey
Member territories of the Partnership for Peace with Individual Partnership Action Plan and
Membership Action Plan for joining NATO: Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia
Member territories of the Partnership for Peace: Serbia
On the recent political, social and economic criteria there are two groups of countries:
Former communist territories: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Aerial photo of Camp Bondsteel, the
Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia main base of the United States Army
under KFOR command in Kosovo
Capitalist and aligned to the West during the Cold War: Greece and Turkey
During the Cold War the Balkans were disputed between the two blocks. Greece and Turkey were
members of NATO, Bulgaria and Romania of the Warsaw Pact, while Yugoslavia was proponent of a third way and was a founding
member of the Non-Aligned Movement. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina kept an observer status
within the organisation.

Regional organizations
 Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe
Southeast European Cooperation Process
members
(SEECP) member states
observers
supporting partners

Southeast European Cooperative Initiative

Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC)
(SECI)
members
members
observers
observers

See also the Black Sea regional organizations

Statistics
 Bosnia and North
Albania Bulgaria Croatia Greece Kosovo*[a] Montenegro Romania Serbia S
Herzegovina Macedonia

Flag

Coat of arms

Capital Tirana Sarajevo Sofia Zagreb Athens Pristina Podgorica Skopje Bucharest Belgrade Lj
28 17 17
3 March, 5 October, 26 June, 25 March, 3 June, 9 May, 3 June, 25
Independence November, February, November,
1992 1908 1991 1821 2006 1878 2006 19
1912 2008 1991
Šefik
Kolinda
Džaferović Rumen Prokopis Hashim Milo Stevo Klaus Aleksandar Bo
President Ilir Meta Grabar-
Milorad Dodik Radev Pavlopoulos Thaçi Đukanović Pendarovski Iohannis Vučić Pa
Kitarović
Željko Komšić

Prime Boyko Andrej Kyriakos Ramush Duško Viorica M

Edi Rama Denis Zvizdić Zoran Zaev Ana Brnabić
Minister Borisov Plenković Mitsotakis Haradinaj Marković Dăncilă Ša
Population 3,502,550
7,000,039 4,076,246 622,182 6,963,764
(2019)[77] 2,862,427 (2018) 10,722,287 1,795,666 2,077,132 19,401,658 2,

Area 28,749 km² 51,197 km² 111,900 km² 56,594 km² 131,117 km² 10,908 km² 13,812 km² 25,713 km² 238,391 km² 77,474 km² 20
Density 100/km² 69/km² 97/km² 74/km² 82/km² 159/km² 45/km² 81/km² 83/km² 91/km² 10
Water area
4.7% 0.02% 2.22% 1.1% 0.99% 1.00% 2.61% 1.09% 2.97% 0.13% 0.
(%)
GDP
(nominal,
$15.059 bln $20.162 bln $65.197 bln $60.805 bln $218.230 bln $7.947 bln $5.457 bln $12.670 bln $239.552 bln $50.509 bln $5
2018)[78]
GDP (PPP,
2018)[78] $38.305 bln $47.590 bln $162.186 bln $107.362 bln $312.267 bln $20.912 bln $11.940 bln $32.638 bln $516.359 bln $122.740 bln $7

GDP per
capita
$5,239 $5,755 $9,314 $14,870 $20,317 $4,433 $8,763 $6,100 $12,270 $7,223
(nominal,
2018)[78]
GDP per
capita (PPP, $13,327 $13,583 $23,169 $26,256 $29,072 $11,664 $19,172 $15,715 $26,448 $17,552
2018)[78]

Gini Index 29.0 low 33.0 medium 29.0 low 36.7

39.6 32.3 31.9 35.1 35.6
29.7 low medium
(2018)[79] (2012)[80] (2011)[81] medium medium (2017)[82] medium medium medium
(2017)
0.791 0.816 very 0.837 very 0.872 very 0.739 high 0.816 0.759 0.816 very
HDI (2018)[83] 0.769 high 0.799 high
high high high high (2016) very high high high ve

IHDI (2018)[84] 0.705 0.658 0.714 0.768 0.766 N/A 0.746 0.660 0.725 0.685 0.

Internet TLD .al .ba .bg .hr .gr .xk .me .mk .ro .rs .s
Calling code +355 +387 +359 +385 +30 +383 +382 +389 +40 +381 +3

Demographics
The region is inhabited by Albanians, Aromanians, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, Croats, Gorani, Greeks, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs, Slovenes, Romanians,
Turks, and other ethnic groups which present minorities in certain countries like the Romani and Ashkali.[43]

State Population (2018)[85] Density/km2 (2018)[86] Life expectancy (2018)[87]

Albania 2,870,324 100 78.34 years

Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,502,550 69 77.2 years

Bulgaria 7,050,034 64 79.9 years

Croatia 4,105,493 73 76.2 years

Greece 10,768,193 82 80.1 years

Kosovo*[a] 1,798,506 165 77.7 years

Montenegro 622,359 45 76.4 years

North Macedonia 2,075,301 81 76.2 years
Romania 19,523,621 82 76.3 years

Serbia 7,001,444 90 76.5 years

Slovenia 2,066,880 102 78.2 years

Turkey 10,201,115[88][c] 101 71.1 years

Religion
The region is a meeting point of Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Roman Catholic Christianity.[89] Eastern
Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both the Balkan peninsula and the Balkan region. A variety of different
traditions of each faith are practiced, with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having its own national church.
A part of the population in the Balkans defines itself as irreligious.

Territories in which the principal religion is Eastern Orthodoxy

Religious minorities of these territories[90]
(with national churches in parentheses)[90]
Bulgaria: 94% (Bulgarian Orthodox Church) Islam (2%) and undeclared (22%)
Islam (1%), Catholicism, other and
Greece: 98% (Greek Orthodox Church)
undeclared
Islam (19%), Catholicism (3%), other and
Montenegro: 72% (Serbian Orthodox Church)
undeclared (5%)
North Macedonia: 64% (Macedonian Orthodox Church) Islam (33%), Catholicism
Map showing religious denominations
Protestantism (6%), Catholicism (5%), other
Romania: 81% (Romanian Orthodox Church)
and undeclared (8%)
Catholicism (5%), Islam (3%), Protestantism
Serbia: 84% (Serbian Orthodox Church)
(1%), other and undeclared (6%)
Territories in which the principal religion is Catholicism[90] Religious minorities of these territories[90]
Eastern Orthodoxy (4%), Islam (1%), other
Croatia (86%)
and undeclared (7%)
Islam (2%), Orthodox (2%), other and
Slovenia (57%)
undeclared (36%)
Territories in which the principal religion is Islam[90] Religious minorities of these territories[90]
Catholicism (10%), Orthodoxy (7%), other
Albania (58%)
and undeclared (24%)
Orthodoxy (31%), Catholicism (15%), other
Bosnia and Herzegovina (51%)
and undeclared (4%)
Catholicism (2%), Orthodoxy (2%), other and
Kosovo (95%)
undeclared (1%)
Turkey (99%) Orthodoxy
Approximate distribution of religions
in Albania
The Jewish communities of the Balkans were some of the oldest in Europe and date back to ancient times. These
communities were Sephardi Jews, except in Transylvania, Croatia and Slovenia, where the Jewish communities were
mainly Ashkenazi Jews. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the small and close-knit Jewish community is 90% Sephardic, and Ladino is still spoken among the
elderly. The Sephardi Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo has tombstones of a unique shape and inscribed in ancient Ladino.[91] Sephardi Jews used to have a large
presence in the city of Thessaloniki, and by 1900, some 80,000, or more than half of the population, were Jews.[92] The Jewish communities in the Balkans
suffered immensely during World War II, and the vast majority were killed during the Holocaust. An exception were the Bulgarian Jews, most of whom were
saved by Boris III of Bulgaria, who resisted Adolf Hitler, opposing their deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Almost all of the few survivors have
emigrated to the (then) newly founded state of Israel and elsewhere. Almost no Balkan country today has a significant Jewish minority.

Languages
The Balkan region today is a very diverse ethno-linguistic region, being home to multiple Slavic and Romance languages,
as well as Albanian, Greek, Turkish, and others. Romani is spoken by a large portion of the Romanis living throughout the
Balkan countries. Throughout history many other ethnic groups with their own languages lived in the area, among them
Thracians, Illyrians, Romans, Celts and various Germanic tribes. All of the aforementioned languages from the present and
from the past belong to the wider Indo-European language family, with the exception of the Turkic languages (e.g., Turkish
and Gagauz).

Most spoken
State Linguistic minorities[93]
language[93] Ethnic map of the Balkans (1880)
Albania 98% Albanian 2% other
Bosnia and
53% Bosnian 31% Serbian (official), 15% Croatian (official), 2% other
Herzegovina
Bulgaria 94% Bulgarian 2% Turkish, 2% Romani, 1% other, 1% unspecified
Croatia 96% Croatian 1% Serbian, 3% other
Greece 99% Greek 1% other

Kosovo*[a] 94% Albanian 2% Bosnian, 2% Serbian (official), 1% Turkish, 1% other

Montenegro 37% Montenegrin (official), 5% Albanian, 5% Bosnian, 5% other, 4%

43% Serbian
unspecified
25% Albanian (official), 4% Turkish, 2% Romani, 1% Serbian, 2% Transhumance ways of the
North Macedonia 67% Macedonian
other Romance-speaking Vlach
shepherds in the past
Romania 91% Romanian 7% Hungarian, 1% Romani
Serbia 88% Serbian 3% Hungarian, 2% Bosnian, 1% Romani, 3% other, 2% unspecified
Slovenia 91% Slovene 5% Serbo-Croatian, 4% other
Turkey 81% Turkish 15% Kurdish, 4% other and unspecified
Urbanization
Most of the states in the Balkans are predominantly urbanized, with the lowest number of urban population as % of the total population found in Kosovo at
under 40%, Bosnia and Herzegovina at 40% and Slovenia at 50%.[94]

Panoramic view of Istanbul

A list of largest cities:

City Country Population Agglomeration Year

Istanbul[a] Turkey 9,000,000 10,000,000 2018[95]

Bucharest Romania 1,887,485 2,272,163 2018[96]

Sofia Bulgaria 1,313,595 1,995,950 2018[97]

Belgrade Serbia 1,119,696 1,659,440 2018[98]

Zagreb Croatia 792,875 1,113,111 2011[99]

Athens Greece 664,046 3,753,783 2018[100]

Skopje North Macedonia 444,800 506,926 2018[101]

Tirana Albania 418,495 800,986 2018[102]

Plovdiv Bulgaria 411,567 396,092 2018[97]

Varna Bulgaria 395,949 383,075 2018[97]

Thessaloniki Greece 325,182 1,012,297 2018[100]

Cluj-Napoca Romania 324,576 411,379 2018[96]

Timișoara Romania 319,279 356,443 2018[96]

Ljubljana Slovenia 292,988 537,712 2018[103]

Iași Romania 290,422 382,484 2018[96]

Constanța Romania 283,872 425,916 2018[96]

Novi Sad Serbia 277,522 341,625 2018[104]

Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina 275,524 413,593 2018

Craiova Romania 269,506 420,000 2018[96]

Çorlu Turkey 253,500 273,362 2018[105]

Brașov Romania 253,200 369,896 2018[96]

a Only the European part of Istanbul is a part of the Balkans.[95] It is home to two thirds of the city's 15,987,888 inhabitants.

Time zones
The time zones in the Balkans are defined as the following:

Territories in the time zone of UTC+01:00: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and
Slovenia
Territories in the time zone of UTC+02:00: Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Turkey

Culture
Cuisine of the Balkans
Balkan music

See also
Balkan Insight Languages of the Balkans
Balkan Universities Network Balkan sprachbund
Balkanization List of Roman Catholic dioceses in the Balkans
History of the Balkans Balkan music
Balkan Wars Orient Express

Notes
 a. ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo
unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two
governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. Kosovo is currently recognized as an
independent state by 98 out of the 193 United Nations member states. In total, 112 UN member states recognized Kosovo at some point,
of which 14 later withdrew their recognition.
b. ^ As The World Factbook cites (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tu.html), regarding Turkey and
Southeastern Europe; "that portion of Turkey west of the Bosphorus is geographically part of Europe."
c. ^ The population only of European Turkey, that excludes the Anatolian peninsula, which otherwise has a population of 75,627,384 and a
density of 97.
d. ^ See:[106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113]
e. ^ See:[24][114][108][109][115][116][110][111][112][113]

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Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans (2 vol 1983); L.S.
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Balkan Economic History, 1550-1950: From Imperial Borderlands to
Developing Nations (Indiana University Press, (1982); Andrew
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Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia—with all or part of
each of those countries located within the peninsula. Portions of
Greece and Turkey are also located within the geographic region
generally defined as the Balkan Peninsula, and many descriptions
of the Balkans include those countries too. Some define the region
in cultural and historical terms and others geographically, though
there are even different interpretations among historians and
geographers....Generally, the Balkans are bordered on the
northwest by Italy, on the north by Hungary, on the north and
northeast by Moldova and Ukraine, and on the south by Greece
and Turkey or the Aegean Sea (depending on how the region is
defined)...For discussion of physical and human geography, along
with the history of individual countries in the region, see Albania,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, North
Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and
Turkey. Area 257,400 square miles (666,700 square km). Pop.
(2002 est.) 59,297,000."
44. According to an earlier version of the Britannica, cited in Crampton,
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Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania,
Slovenia and Yugoslavia (Montenegro and Serbia)", and also "the
European portion of Turkey"; noting that Turkey is not a Balkan
state and that the inclusion of Slovenia and the Transylvanian part
of Romania in the region is dubious.
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External links
Balkan Insight – Analysis from Balkans (http://www.balkaninsight.com/)
Balkanalysis, in-depth research on Balkan geopolitics (https://web.archive.org/web/20060617145859/http://balkanalysis.com/)
Western Balkans Photo impression (https://www.facebook.com/WesternBalkans)
Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries (https://www.academia.edu/18698805/Shared_Pasts_in_Central_and_S
outheast_Europe_17th_21st_Centuries_Hungarian_and_Bulgarian_Approaches._Eds._G%C3%A1bor_Demeter_Penka_Peykovska._Sofia-
Budapest_2015_440_p/). Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015.

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