Eleni Fotiou - The half full glass
In the aftermath of Kosovo’s independence the discourse on the future of the Balkan peninsula has triggered academics, politicians, diplomats and of course, conspiracy-theorists to philosophise on strategies capable of guaranteeing peace and stability in the region. International relations theories on regionalism and economic interdependence or the states’ pursuit of national interest and clash of civilisations do not seem adequate to explain the course of events or to give an answer as to the future of the Balkans.
Some years ago, we were members of a youth organisation and we participated in the 1st Balkan Seminar, which was held in Athens. For four days, we sat around a table discussing, fighting, and arguing on the issues that divide us. The Serbs and the Croats had unresolved questions after the war, the Bosnians were trying to explain the political system in their country, Turks and Greeks provoked hot discussions regarding the Aegean dispute and so on.
On the last day of the seminar, we were all around the same table laughing at the stereotypes we deconstructed after meeting each other. And the thing is, we had all started out with stereotype images of each other from our schoolbooks and the movies from days gone by that projected our nation as heroic and the others as uncivilized barbarians. So, we decided to stick to what unites us. That at that precise moment, we were all there, around a table, talking about us, the Balkans.
Heirs of the history of the Empires that flourished in the Balkan region, the Balkan states had never been homogenous. They had always been multicultural, due to the fact that in the aftermath of the fall of the Ottoman Empire, mixed cultural, linguistic and religious communities were trapped in the boundaries of nation-states, that lead to forced migrations, trans-boundary crises, prolonged ethnic and religious conflicts and wars. But together with this damned course of events, multiculturalism in the Balkans is what can bring people closer. Music, dance, manners and customs, proverbs and anecdotes are components of the Balkan temperament.
It seems rather superficial to believe that ethnic and religious conflicts in the Balkans will disappear, because of this ‘Balkan temperament’. However, the unfortunate earthquakes in Turkey and in Greece during 1999 have proven that when people come closer, stereotypes are deconstructed and that can be the first step towards rapprochement. However, this is the point where states should institutionalise bilateral or multilateral relations. In the Balkan region, most of the initiatives for cooperation derived from external pressure, defined by the European Union or the United States. The only indigenous initiative was the South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) and this is indicative of the boundaries of politics.
Nevertheless, setting criteria and obligations, the European Union served as an effective tool for the promotion of cooperation in the region. The mobility enabled through exchange programs of various social and economic groups, students, entrepreneurs and academics, lead to the creation of communities bound with common interests and a sense of interdependence, and to the subsequent emergence of an extremely active civil society, which has rendered the likelihood of crises escalating to wars, an increasingly remote possibility.
Thus, we should let states do their job and follow their norms and formalities. When stereotypes collapse and a civil society of young people is formed, the course cannot easily be reversed. A very promising society of youngsters has recently emerged, which does not want to forget the past – as it is often claimed – but to build a new future based on the common denominators, which are democracy and active citizenship. Cooperation – all there, around a table, talking about us, the Balkans – is what unites us. And more than national identity, it is the creation of an active regional citizenship, a Balkan citizenship, the essence of our future.
Eleni Fotiou is research fellow at the Hellenic Centre for European Studies (EKEM). The views expressed in this article are personal.
