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The countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, mainland Greece,(former Yugoslav) Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia and the European part of Turkey are commonly described as being in the Balkans. The boundaries of the region are somewhat elastic, so Romania and Slovenia are not always included.
The region takes its name from the Balkan mountains which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia, and the term 'Balkan' itself is derived from the Turkish word for mountainThis article is about the landform. For other meanings, see Mountain (disambiguation). Mount Cook, a mountain in New Zealand A mountain is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain in a limited area. A mountain is generally much higher and ste.
The Balkans are generally considered to comprise the lands to the south of the Kupa , SavaSava can mean several things: for polynesian mythology creature see Sava (mythology), see Sava (river) for a southeastern european river, see Sava (name) for south Slavic name, see Saint Sava for Serbian medieval prince turned monk (1176 1235). and Danube rivers, which bisect Croatia and Serbia and form a natural boundary between Bulgaria and Romania. North of that line lies the Pannonian plainThe Pannonian plain is a large plain in central/south-eastern Europe that remained when the Pliocene Pannonian Sea (see below) dried out. The river Danube divides the plain roughly in half. The plain is roughly bounded by the Carpathian mountains, the Alp and (in the case of Romania) the Carpathian mountains. Romania is conventionally included as a successor state to the old Ottoman EmpireOsmanlı İmparatorluğu Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye The Ottoman Coat of Arms Imperial motto: unknown The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital İstanbul ( Constantinople) Sovereigns Sultans, which formerly ruled the whole region; the inclusion of Slovenia is more controversial but it has often been regarded as Balkan due to its association with the former YugoslaviaYugoslavia Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages) is a term used for three separate political entities that existed during most of the 20th century. Translated, the name means Land of the South Slavs jug in Jugoslavija means south). The first was a ki.
The Balkan land mass is sometimes referred to as the Balkan peninsula as it is surrounded by the Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean, Marmara and Black seas from the southwest, south and southeast. While it is not a model peninsula as it has no isthmus to connect it to the mainland Europe, this definition is often used to denote the wider region.
The distinct identity of the Balkans owes as much to its fragmented and often violent common history as to its mountainous geography. The region was perennially on the edge of great empires, its history dominated by wars, rebellions, invasions and clashes between empires, from the times of the Roman Empire to the latter-day Yugoslav wars. Its fractiousness and tendency to splinter into rival political entities led to the coining of the term Balkanization (or balkanizing). The term Balkan commonly connotes a connection with violence, religious strife, ethnic clannishness and a sense of hinterland.
Due to the aforementioned connotations of the term "Balkan", many people prefer the term Southeastern Europe instead. The use of this term is slowly growing; a European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and the online newspaper Balkan Times renamed itself Southeast European Times in 2003. The use of this term to mean the Balkan peninsula (and only that) technically ignores the geographical presence of northern Romania and Ukraine, which are also located in the southeastern part of the European continent.
The countries commonly included in the Balkan region are:
Many regions in the countries listed as Balkan states can be in many respects rather distinct from the remainder of the region, so countries that are borderline cases (often far away from the Balkan mountain itself) usually prefer not to be called Balkan countries. Prime examples of this are Romania and Slovenia, sometimes also Croatia and Greece.
Other countries not included in the Balkan region that are either close to it and/or play or have played an important role in the region's geopolitics, culture and history:
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