ABSTRACT
The identity of the religious communities in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans stems from a long historical process, which can explain a lot about the present. Fernand Braudel (1966, vol. 2, p. 95) argues that the multitude of civilisations – complex and contradictory, liberal and exclusive, ready to meet the other or make war with him – is the most permanent feature of the Mediterranean. A model of international relations built on overlapping polities interacting on many levels most correctly describes the history of the Eastern Mediterranean, where peoples’ loyalty is split among a variety of networks of political power.
