Abstract

Balkan Puzzle

The "mystery" of the Balkans ceases to be a mystery once it is understood that Western standards cannot be applied to them. "The Balkans" means not merely a range of mountains and a peninsula between the Adriatic and the Aegean Sea, or a number of small states with conflicting interests, the name stands for a particular twist of mind. To describe it as bellicose, pugnacious, or quarrelsome is not enough. The Russian saying has it that a Russian is taken ill if he is not allowed to tell one lie a year, but that a Persian will die if he is bound to tell the truth once a year. The people of the peninsula, and for that matter the statesmen, were originally no worse than their Western brothers, but centuries of Turkish domination followed by imperialism developed both the necessity to play a double game and the unsavory qualities with which to play it successfully.