Shattered eagles, Balkan fragments

The collapse of Communism opened up great areas of the Balkans to Western travellers. At the same time it exposed old wounds among the different peoples of this troubled area. The tragic conflicts in Yugoslavia have brought this home to the rest of the world, although the history behind these conflicts is still imperfectly known. This book aims to draw attention to those areas of potential discord inhabited by groups scarcely recognized even in their native countries. Building on his previous work on the Vlachs of the Central Balkans, written in 1987 before the Iron Curtain was dismantled, T.J. Winnifrith discusses the present position of the Vlachs in Australia, America, Albania and Romania. The Pomaks, the Bulgarian speaking Muslims of the Rhodope mountains, minorities in Greece, and the vexed area of Macedonia and Kosovo are also considered. The book examines the reasons for fragmentation in the Balkans and offers a possible solution to its dangerous divisions.