ABSTRACT

The Balkan area has always been a region of diversity from the ethnic and religious point of view. The only other areas in the world with a similar situation are Lebanon and the Caucasus. 1 This is the most fragmented part of Europe and the source of many conflicts in the past, with the word ‘balkanisation’ used as a synonym of extreme diversity, and by extension, inextricable conflicts. We will cite just a few: the 1918 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo which marked the beginning of the First World War, the stubborn resistance of the indigenous groups during the Second World War, the 1992–1995 war in Europe and the area of sole NATO intervention in 1999. 2