Talk:Balkans

Hungary is not part of the Balkans. (WT-en) Yann 18:25, 22 Mar 2004 (EST)

I agree, the exact meaning of the word Balkan is always in dispute, but including Hungary is really pushing the limits so I'm going to remove it. (WT-en) Aburda 11:37, 4 Jul 2005 (EDT)

Greece is mentioned later and I thought was part of the balkans but is not on the list. Okay I added it but the map is still wrong.

We've grouped Greece with Cyprus and Turkey (see here)- any comments? then please direct them over at Talk:Europe/Hierarchy, but remember Europe is so complex it's darn hard making everyone happy. Also the regions on Bosnia Talk:Bosnia and Herzegovina could use a comment if anyone would be so inclined *wink* --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 18:56, 30 March 2009 (EDT)

Slovenia is absolutely part of the Balkans. The Balkan line goes straight through Ljubljana. Slovenes don't like the ˝Balkan˝ connotations of war and political instability, (and worst of all, poverty) but it is intellectually dishonest for them to claim that they aren't a Balkan country. One trip to the police station is enough proof to show otherwise. Slovenia is a police state under the thinnest veneer of democracy. The police have absolute power, they are the judge, jury, executioner, and appellate judges of minor cases (which can get a foreigner deported). Human rights are not respected here, though the government goes through the motions. They keep trying to fire their own human rights ombudsman. How Balkan is that? ¨89.212.31.129 12:17, 6 April 2009 (EDT)

again - changes in the hierarchy should go in Talk:Europe/Hierarchy --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 17:25, 6 April 2009 (EDT)

Croatia

How can Croatia be part of Balkans????

Do you know where mountain Balkan is??? And river Sava???? Croatia was part of Austro - Hungarian Monarchy from 16 century until 1918. We are 90% Catholics. What we have in common with other countries of former Yugoslavia???? We were together just for 50 years.

(Moved here on behalf of User talk:93.141.23.171) (WT-en) Jtesla16 11:33, 14 June 2009 (EDT)

Croats ~ Serbs. 30% of Croats (Jekavian Stokavian speakers) = Serbs. Have a good sleep.... Tesla ??? You know the religion of Nikola Tesla?

Kosovo

Kosovo not being here seems like a political statement to me. It's a country. Please add it to this page, I do not have the wiki knowalde to do it.

Ten cities?

An editor added Pristina the capital of Kosovo, to the list of Cities. I reverted it per our strict nine-city rule, but I think we may have a strong case for an exception here. We have ten countries in this continental section, and nine of them have their capitals listed under "Cities". I daresay we would need a really good reason to exclude Pristina and only Pristina, as long as we're going with capital cities all the way down. (WT-en) LtPowers 19:37, 19 August 2011 (EDT)

Nine is the max, so one has to be omitted. I think Pristina makes a good one for leaving out. --(WT-en) globe-trotter 20:17, 21 August 2011 (EDT)

Yes, but you see, I'm suggesting we make an exception here. (WT-en) LtPowers 21:56, 21 August 2011 (EDT)

I think there is a very good case for making an exception here, and listing 10.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 22:24, 21 August 2011 (EDT)

If we're starting with exceptions, then I think we're opening a can of worms for many other regions. Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States for instance. --(WT-en) globe-trotter 08:07, 22 August 2011 (EDT)

I think it's a good case for an exception, and clearly different from Europe, the US, or the US in that there are 10 countries (which is already somewhat of an exception to the 7+-2 rule) in this region and it seems odd to not feature one city from each. (WT-en) texugo 08:33, 22 August 2011 (EDT)

I agree, making an exception here seems perfectly justified and besides, it's a lot less trouble than choosing which one to exclude and making cases for that choice. I'm not very worried about opening a can of worms. Exceptions prove the rule, they say, and if others can make an equally convincing case for another region, I'm quite fine with considering it there too. (WT-en) Justme 08:43, 22 August 2011 (EDT)

I wouldn't even be suggesting it if we didn't have nine out of ten capital cities listed already. If one of the cities wasn't a capital, or one of the countries had two cities listed, or anything else, I'd let it be. But it looks very strange to have nine capital cities and not the tenth. If we change the wording to specifically say "These are the capitals of the ten Balkan countries," I think we'll be fine precedent-wise. (WT-en) LtPowers 10:46, 22 August 2011 (EDT)

So what do we do? It seems several users agreed to make an exception, but Pristina is still not on the list. And there's also a question of Tiraspol, capital of Transnistria. Jjtkk (talk) 08:22, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Transnistria

Why is Transnistria not shown in the region map? Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:25, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Religiosity

In Understand we have a sentence on religion:

"The ethnicities are to a degree coupled with religion (Muslims and Orthodox and Catholic Christians)."

My understanding is that Islam is an essential part of the life of most Muslims around the world, and that the general impression is that Muslims are quite observant. This may in part be because of the Western media interest for the Middle East (and Islam seldom being mentioned in news from elsewhere) – but I am hardly alone among our readers to have that bias.

Because of the prejudice on Muslims, I think it is important to briefly explain that the Muslim Bosniaks generally are quite secular. I think that this should be said where the religions are discussed, which now is in Understand. Local hero doesn't agree: "it doesn't fit here, the sentence is about ethnicity being tied to religion".

I am open to rephrasing or finding a better context, but I think this needs to be told somewhere, if we are to discuss the religions of different ethnicities.

(During the Yugoslavian wars, the press over here often wrote about Croats, Serbs and Muslims, which I found an offending asymmetry in language – I don't want to perpetuate the underlying prejudice.)

–LPfi (talk) 06:36, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

I understand that Muslims in Albania and Kosovo are also generally quite secular. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:49, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

I think adding a new sentence on religiosity would be helpful. I'm unfamiliar with this prejudice on Muslims; during the Yugoslav era, Bosniaks were known and recorded as "Muslims by nationality"/Muslimani. However my experience is that Muslims in Albania are indeed secular, while Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia are less secular (i.e., more women in headscarves, newer and bigger mosques being built). I would also say Bosniaks are more secular than Albanian Muslims. We should also state that the Christians of the Balkans are more secular than the Muslims. Local hero (talk) 11:54, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Are Christians more secular? The difference between Muslim observance in the Balkans and, say, Saudi Arabia or Iraq (even Kurdistan, I believe) is very clear, but I have no idea how religious Balkan Christians are. –LPfi (talk) 13:25, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Certainly Balkan Muslims are much more secular than Arabian ones and are likely among the most secular Muslims in the world. I agree that's a good point to convey in this section, sorry if I had missed the point. From a traveller's perspective, Balkan Christians are more secular than their Muslim counterparts. For instance, going through Skopje's Old Bazaar, headscarves and the call to prayer strongly characterize the quarter, while going through Centar doesn't really have an equivalent religious vibe. However, when compared to Western European Christians, I think some Balkan Christians may be more religious. Local hero (talk) 15:28, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Glad to have the views of a local. Of course I defer to Local hero, as I have not yet had the pleasure of visiting the region. Ikan Kekek (talk) 16:23, 10 July 2024 (UTC)