ABSTRACT
Yugoslavia is a mountainous country in the northern Balkans. The state till 2006 has been composed of two republics: Serbia and Montenegro.
The geographical region situated in the central and western Balkans, which became the Yugoslavian entity, is the most complex from the aspects of its ethnic composition and territorial affinity, and is the most representative of the “Balkan situation.” It is where two fault lines cross, the one drawn between Orthodox Christianity (for example, the Serbs and the Macedonians) and Catholicism (Slovenians and Croatians), and the other drawn between the Christians and the Muslims (Bosnians and Albanians). The variety of population groups is much larger because the link between religious affiliation and ethnic or language-related identity is not always unequivocal. Thus, for example, the Muslims, defined as Bosnians, are mostly of Slavic descent and they speak Serbo-Croatian. The fact that there are many other ethnic groups also contributes to the wide diversity-particularly those at the margins of this area (Hungarians, Bulgarians, etc.).1
