THE CULTURE OF COEXISTENCE AND PERCEPTION OF THE OTHER IN THE WESTERN BALKANS
Throughout the 550 year Ottoman rule over the Balkan lands, where even today internal dynamics threaten peace and justice, how and through what means the Ottoman Empire achieved consistency, security and peace is a question to which a number of political scientists, sociologists, communication sci...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Institute for Human Rehabilitation
2015-04-01
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| Series: | Human Research in Rehabilitation |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://human.ba/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88&Itemid=560&jsmallfib=1&dir=JSROOT/2015/April+-+Issue+1/Article+6+-+THE+CULTURE+OF+COEXISTENCE+AND+PERCEPTION+OF+THE+OTHER+IN+THE+WESTERN+BALKANS+-+Sibel+Akova%2C+Gulin+Terek+Unal&download_file=JSROOT/2015/April+-+Issue+1/Article+6+-+THE+CULTURE+OF+COEXISTENCE+AND+PERCEPTION+OF+THE+OTHER+IN+THE+WESTERN+BALKANS+-+Sibel+Akova%2C+Gulin+Terek+Unal/Full+Text.pdf |
| Summary: | Throughout the 550 year Ottoman rule over the Balkan lands, where even today internal dynamics threaten peace and
justice, how and through what means the Ottoman Empire achieved consistency, security and peace is a question to
which a number of political scientists, sociologists, communication scientists and history researchers have sought an
answer. The most interesting point of the question is that the peoples of the Balkans, a living museum comprising a
number of different ethnic groups and religious beliefs, have reached the point where the culture of coexistence has been
internalised and dynamics have moved from the conflict of identities to cultural integration. The Balkans are a bridge to
the East from Europe and indeed to the West from Turkey, incorporating a patchwork political and cultural geography,
the geopolitical location and a richness of culture and civilization, being one of the areas attracting the attention of researchers
from different disciplines and capturing the imagination of the peoples of the world throughout history. Balkan
studies are almost as difficult as climbing the peaks in the areas and meaningful answers cannot be reached by defining
the area on a single parameter such as language, culture or traditions, while the phenomenon of the other can also be
observed within the culture of coexistence in this intricate and significant location. Different ethnic groups with different
cultures, such as the Southern Slavs (Bosniaks, Montenegrans, Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) as well as Turks, Albanians,
Bulgarians, Balkan Jews, Balkan Romany and Wallachians (Romanians and Greeks). Although these peoples may have
different religious beliefs, in the ethnically rich Balkan region, religion, language, political and cultural differences are
vital in the formation of a mosaic, making the discourse of coexistence possible and creating common values and loyalties,
breaking down differences. The Serbian and Montenegrin peoples, belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church, the
Croat and Slovene peoples belonging to the Catholic Church and the Muslin Bosniaks have shared the same lands and
livee in coexistence throughout the historical process, despite having different beliefs. However, in some periods the
other and the perception of the other have replaced common values, leading to conflicts of interest, unrest and religion
based wars. After the breakup of the Yugoslavian Federal Socialist Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, defined by the European Union as
the Western Balkans, have established themselves as nation states of the stage of history. The scope of our study is these
Western Balkan Countries, and we will use the terminology Western Balkans throughout. |
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| ISSN: | 2232-9935 2232-996X |