SERBIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS

INSTITUTE FOR BALKAN STUDIES

LI 2020

BALCANICA
P. Counillon, l’istros dans la Géographie de Strabon · M.
VasiljeVić, Translations of Saints’ Relics in the late Medieval
Central Balkans · V. simić, Popular Piety and the Paper icons
of Zaharija orfelin · A. SoReSCu-marinkoVić & M.
mirić & S. ćirkoVić, Assessing linguistic Vulnerability and
endangerment in Serbia: A Critical Survey of Methodologies
and outcomes · A. louPAS, interethnic Rivalries and Bilateral
Cooperation: Aspects of Greek-Serbian Relations from the
assassination of alexander obrenović to the annexation of Bosnia-
Herzegovina (1903–1908) · V. G. PaVloVić, le révolutionnaire
professionnel 1934–1936 Tito à Moscou · S. G. MARkoViCH,
History of Hellenic-Serbian (Yugoslav) Alliances from karageorge
to the Balkan Pact 1817–1954 · D. GnjatoVić, evolution of
economic Thought on Monetary Reform in the kingdom of Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes after the Great War · G. latinoVić &
n. ožeGoVić, “St. Bartholomew’s night” of Banja luka: The
ustasha Crime against the Serbs in the Banja luka Area on 7
February 1942 · i. VukadinoVić, The Shift in Yugoslav-
Albanian Relations: The establishment of Ties between Albania
and the Autonomous Province of kosovo and Metohija (1966–
1969) · M. ristoVić, Yugoslav-Greek Relations from the end of
the Second World War to 1990: Chronology, Phases, Problems and
Achievements g

ANNUAL OF THE INSTITUTE FOR BALKAN STUDIES

ISSN 0350-7653
UDC 930.85(4-12) BELGRADE 2020 eISSN 2406-0801
 Reviews 309

Although the Albanian national move- autonomy of Kosovo and Metohija to the
ment in Yugoslavia is one of the book’s fo- status of a federal unit with its own con-
cuses, the author provides little information stitution, supreme court and powers in the
about its structure, modes of operation and area of defence and international relations.
protagonists, occasionally misleading read- Kosovo and Diplomacy Since World
ers into believing that the latter were people War II: Yugoslavia, Albania and the Path to
who spent decades in prison for their beliefs, Kosovan Independence is a useful handbook
such as Adem Demaçi. In that way, readers for research concerned with the diplomatic
are left unaware of the fact that the lead- history of the Kosovo-and-Metohija issue,
ers of the Albanian national programme the policy of Enver Hoxha’s Albania on the
in Kosovo and Metohija in the 1960s and issue, and the history of European diplo-
1970s were not “persecuted members of macy in the Cold War era. The parts of the
an underground resistance” but in fact the book that deal with the history of Kosovo
most influential party functionaries and and Metohija and Yugoslav state policy are
intellectuals employed in state institutions marked by the author’s propagandistic slant,
who, with the support of Josip Broz and the which takes away some of its scholarly value.
Yugoslav political leadership, elevated the

Thanos Veremis, A Modern History of the Balkans. Nationalism and Identity

in Southeast Europe. London & New York: I. B. Tauris, 2017, xi + 226 p.
Reviewed by Dušan Fundić*

The recently published book of Thanos of the Balkan states’ internal development,
Veremis is a condensed overview of a little the author identifies the phenomena and
more than the last two centuries of Balkan processes he perceives as decisive for the
history. Veremis, Professor Emeritus of Po- outcomes and contemporary problems of
litical History at the University of Athens, the Balkan region. In that sense, he attrib-
founding member and former President of utes responsibility for the state of affairs in
the Hellenic Foundation for European and Balkan politics and relations between the
Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and visiting countries to the incompetence and irre-
professor at Princeton, Oxford and Lon- sponsibility of foreign and local political ac-
don School of Economics, is a prolific his- tors alike. Veremis focuses primarily on the
torian, whose better-known works include most important developments in the politi-
Modern Greece: A History since 1821 (2010). cal history of Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and
The book reviewed here is structured into Romania, offering a comparative perspec-
three parts whose titles – “The Balkans tive and an overview of their foreign policy
from the Nineteenth to the Twenty First orientations.
Century: the Building and Dismantling of By the end of the eighteenth century the
Nation States”, “The Balkans in Compara- Orthodox Christians of South-East Europe
tive Perspective”, and “Unfinished Business” were inheritors of three cultural traditions:
– clearly show the main directions in which
he takes his research.
Discussing the relationship between the
influence of great powers and the dynamic * Institute for Balkan Studies SASA
310 Balcanica LI (2020)

Greek, Latin and Slavic. Common to them the military in the domestic politics of Bal-
was that they were engaged in trade and kan states are concluded with a look at the
sought to evade Ottoman tax collectors. views of Western authors on the south-east-
Also, Ottoman rule provided a single frame ern part of Europe. Veremis places particu-
for all of them, despite differences, with the lar emphasis on the economic instability of
tradition of knowledge transmission and nineteenth-century states which, following
education within Orthodox churches. To- the penetration of Western capital, declared
wards the end of the eighteenth century, the bankruptcy one after another, from the Ot-
peoples of the Balkan Peninsula became ac- toman Empire (1881), Greece (1893) and
quainted with the ideas of the French Revo- Serbia (1896) to Bulgaria (1902), indicating
lution more directly, through the French difficulties in their development. The sec-
rule of the Illyrian Provinces (parts of Croa- tion devoted to the Balkan economy in the
tia and Dalmatia) and the Ionian Islands, second half of the twentieth century takes
through various proponents of “French ide- a look at the differences between and con-
as”: diplomats, agents, local liberals and rev- sequences of Yugoslav self-management,
olutionaries as the human factor in the pro- socialist countries, Albania, Bulgaria and
motion of revolutionary ideas and concepts, Romania, and Greek capitalism. The part
the Balkan mercantile diaspora in Central of the book dealing with economic issues
Europe, and the phenomenon defined by contains a few useful tables which make it
Veremis as “tradition of local radicalism”, easier for the reader to understand the au-
until the early 1820s, exemplified by Riga thor’s line of argument which is concluded
Velestinlis. In the author’s view, exposure to with the observation that the future of the
these ideas paved the way for the shaping of Peninsula will to a great extent depend on
national identities and states in the Balkans the fiscal policy of Germany and the EU.
along with the struggle against Ottoman A major strength of Veremis’s book is
rule which marked the nineteenth century. his response to various tropes about the Bal-
Veremis’s overview of the history of the kans that prevail among Western publics.
Balkans states is balanced and offers a well- Following the emergence of a Eurocentric
founded selection of key events and actors. perspective on the Balkans since the work
He draws particular attention to the fact of Edward Gibbon, an eighteenth-century
that the states of South-East Europe were British Enlightenment historian, whose in-
built on the ruins of two empires, the Hab- fluential book on the history of the Roman
sburg and the Ottoman, and that they spent Empire described the Balkans as a “dark”
a good part of the nineteenth and twentieth part of the Byzantine world, Veremis argues
centuries in mutual rivalries. On the other that such a perspective has been strength-
hand, to make it clear that modern Balkan ened by more recent but not much different
history cannot be reduced to a string of con- work of Samuel Huntington. Huntington
flicts and wars, Veremis points to a series of saw the Orthodox and Muslim cultural
attempts at alliances and cooperation and worlds as contrasting with the “more Eu-
provides examples of “multilateralism” be- ropean” Catholic and Protestant countries.
tween neighbours. He looks at the efforts Veremis also points to the oversimplified
to overcome rivalries, from the Balkan Pact media presentation of the disintegration of
(1934) of Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia.
Greece to the period of communism and the The last part of the book is devoted to
disintegration of Yugoslavia. the Greek-Macedonian dispute, Kosovo’s
The particularly important chapters on self-proclaimed independence and the
nationalisms and identities in the Balkans, “Dayton” Bosnia and Herzegovina. Veremis
mostly unstable economies and the role of points to inept and insufficiently effective
 Reviews 311

policies of Western countries, including US The book ends with a “Chronology”,

involvement in the disintegration of Yugo- a list of the major events that took place
slavia under the veneer of support for multi- between 1774, the year taken as the begin-
cultural democracies. The outcome was the ning of the Eastern Question, and 2016, the
creation of two EU-financed Western pro- year of the Brexit referendum which, along
tectorates that can hardly be described as with other difficulties of the EU, is seen as
multicultural. The involvement of Western a sign of the protracted wait of the rest of
diplomacies is criticized as largely indecisive the Balkan countries in the antechamber
and insufficiently concerned about its long- of membership. Some shortcomings of the
term consequences. It is important to know book include the occasionally imprecise or/
that the book was published a year before and inconsistent spelling of personal and
the Prespa Agreement (2018) concluded be- geographic names. The virtual absence of
tween the governments in Skopje and Ath- Montenegro is conspicuous. Apart from its
ens which settled the issue of the name of role in the Balkan Wars, no further informa-
Greece’s northern neighbour, now known as tion about it is given. These shortcomings
the Republic of North Macedonia. Can this notwithstanding, this book raises a number
be described as the “flexible strategy that will of interesting questions and offers original
not depend entirely on foreign priorities” interpretations and answers both to stu-
that Veremis favours, in the conclusion of dents and to professional historians of Bal-
his book, as the approach to resolving Bal- kan history.
kan issues?

Thede Kahl and Ioana Nechiti, The Boyash in Hungary. A Comparative Study
among the Arĝeleni and Munĉeni Communities.
Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2019, 235 p.
Reviewed by Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković*

The Boyash (Bayash) are an ethnic group in Hungary. A Comparative Study among
living today in scattered communities across the Arĝeleni and Munĉeni Communities, au-
the Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, thored by Thede Kahl and Ioana Nechiti, is
but also in the Americas. They speak Ro- a valuable addition to this growing body of
manian, preserve the memory of a common study.
traditional occupation (woodwork), and The volume, which is the first in the se-
are usually considered Roma by the major- ries edited by the Vanishing Languages and
ity population. The last two decades have Cultural Heritage Commission of the Aus-
seen an explosion of interest in this ethnic trian Academy of Sciences, is a thorough
group, partly triggered by the publication, in dialectological and linguistic comparison of
2005, of the volume The Bayash in the Bal- the Romanian linguistic varieties spoken by
kans. Identity of an Ethnic Community, by two subgroups of the Boyash in Hungary:
the Institute for Balkan Studies in Belgrade Arĝeleni and Munĉeni. It must be highlight-
and under the editorship of Biljana Sikimić. ed that the Arĝelean variety is the one un-
Today, researchers already talk about a new dergoing standardization, as Hungary has
emerging discipline, Bayash studies, which
has by now gathered an impressive corpus
of studies. The present volume, The Boyash * Institute for Balkan Studies SASA