Thread by @ektrit

BALKANS

#krisonomics

People fundamentally misunderstand the Balkans.

Being asked few times about it, here's a summary of my replies to my twitter friends:

1/

There are Two Definitions of Ethnicity in the Balkans:

- Language
- Religion

2/

Albanians:
Language: They all speak Albanian
Religion: Irrelevant

Greeks:
Language: They all speak Greek.
Religion: Only Orthodox Greeks are counted as Greek.
Muslim Greeks are NOT counted as Greeks.

3/

Bulgarians:
Language: They all speak Bulgarian
Religion: Only Orthodox Bulgarians are counted as Bulgarian. Muslim Bulgarians are NOT counted as Bulgarians.

Romanians:
Language: They all speak Romanian.
Religion: They are mostly all Orthodox. Very compact identity.

4/

Serbs, Croats, Bosnians-Montenegrins:

Language: Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian-Montenegrin (they speak the exact same language).

Religion:
All Catholic Serb-Croat-Bosniaks-Montenegrins are called Croats.

All Orthodox Serbs-Croats-Bosniaks-Montenegrins are called Serbs

5/

All Muslim Serbs-Croats-Bosniaks-Montenegrins are called Bosniaks.

Montenegrins are an offshoot of Serbs-Croats-Bosniaks-Montenegrins claiming to be different nation.

6/

If a Serb converts to Catholicism, he/she becomes a Croat.
If a Serb converts to Islam, he/she becomes a Bosniak.

If a Bosniak converts to Catholicism, he/she becomes a Croat.
If a Bosniak converts to Orthodoxy, he/she becomes a Serb.

7/

If a Croat converts to Orthodoxy, he/she becomes a Serb.
If a Croat converts to Islam, he/she becomes a Bosniak.

Montenegrins can switch identity as they wish, self identify as Serbs or Montenegrins, because they have the same religion, which happened in the last elections.

8/

If a Bulgarian becomes Muslim, he/she would become a Pomak.
If a Pomak becomes Orthodox, he/she would become a Bulgarian.

If a Greek becomes Muslim, he/she would become a Turk.
If a Muslim in Greece becomes Orthodox, he/she would become Greek.

9/

Romanians have no such identity problems.

North Macedonians are an exception here, as they are the far too extreme case as far as identity close to lunacy, which is not abnormal in the Balkans at all, extreme and lunacy are normal around here.

10/

Now we shift to Yugoslavia and Turkey.

Yugoslavia was an attempt to create the Common Nation of South Slavs in the image of Unified Germany in 1871 and Unified Italy in 1870.

11/

The idea was to have All South Slavs emulated Germany, dump their religions and focus on common language only, like Albania later.

It failed because the Churches proved to strong being supported by outside forces.

12/

So, as Yarosh @Yarimatahari told me, an Atheist would be a Yugoslav.

So, by definition:

If Serbs dumped their Orthodoxy, they would stop being Serbs.

If Croats dumped their Catholicism, they would stop being Croats.

12/

@Yarimatahari If Bosniaks dumped their Islam, they would stop being Bosniaks.

And so on.

Yugoslavia failed precisely because of that.

One Ethnicity, Serb-Croat-Bosniak-Montenegrin split in 3 due to Religious Identity (not Faith).

Do not confuse Religious Identity with Faith.

13/

@Yarimatahari To make the point here:

For the Serb-Croat war for Krajina, it was seen as Religious War by both, Orthodox vs Catholics, within the same Ethnicity.

14/

@Yarimatahari For the Serb-Albanian war in Kosovo, Serbs saw it as Religious War, Orthodox vs Muslims, whereas Albanians so it as strictly Ethnic War as Religion means nothing among Albanians as far as Identity.

15/

@Yarimatahari We shift to Turkey.

If 100% of Turks hypothetically became Atheists today, they'd still be Muslim, as Identity, not as Faith.

Being Muslim is the Identity of Turks, as there are no Original Asian Turks in Modern Turkey, or as I like to joke:

There are no Turks in Turkey.

16/

@Yarimatahari I hope it became crystal clear for all who have asked thus far and who will keep asking in the future.

17/

END

#krisonomics