From: gd8f@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Gregory  Dandulakis)
Subject: Re: Albanians and Pseudo-Macedonia
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 05:17:27 GMT

In a penetrating article (Stasinos Stavrianeas) writes:

>1)Exports through a place that used to be one nation now have to be done 
>through many. That means taxes go up, cost goes up and exports go down. 
>2) There is a constant source of trouble somewhere in the Balcans: Greek civil 
>war, Bulgarian communistic administrations, Romanian dictatorships, Albanian 
>chaos, etc. Now it seems the fire is on. So, ask those questions before getting
>involved in sovinistic discussions. 
>3) The economies of all the countries in the Balkans are among the worst in 
>Europe. Does that ring a bell? Do other countries have to do with it? Does 
>Germany and France and USA want to sell guns? Do they want to built new 
>factories with cheap labor? Do they want to have nice cheap holidays?
>Well, I don't want to say that this is that happens, only that there is a 
>possibility that might be the case.


 I am very willing to accept that these questions reveal a lot of truth.
 I was very much alarmed when at last week's TIME magasine (5 Oct. issue),
 when they had dedicated the whole issue in an analysis of the next mil-
 lenium, in a very reasonable article for the forecast of the 21st century
 they predict that Europe will be a clear winner (Japan loser, and USA
 will remain the leader). But the terrible news is that while they predict
 that former eastern Europe will be incorporated fully in the economic 
 european system up till 2050, they clearly see that Rumania, Bulgaria
 and Albania will rather have a worse, bleak future (Turkey is not even 
 mentioned). Even though Greece was not mentioned, it should be more than
 clear that a small country like Greece, surrounded by economic misery
 will soon or later be absorbed by this chaos (either by wars or simply
 by geographical isolation from lost dynamic neighboring markets). 

 I personally felt chillingly agonizing. We have to give it a try for impro-
 ving the Balkans, if we really care for our own interests.
 It's depressing that all the hopes of the people who tried to escape
 from the too slow, too backward politically and economically, late
 Ottoman empire (with the form of nationalistic revolts against the feudal
 center), and even though many different paths were taken (different
 "protecting" superpowers, different economic and political systems),
 none of the spinned off new states managed to create the social, political,
 ethical, managerial (public and private) and economic conditions which
 would permit our entrance in the modern global world. Our old fashioned
 good habits and mentalities are fully alive: We still think and act locally,
 for our clan and our immediate present, we envy the "better off" neighbor,
 we cann't enjoy other cultures, and we finally find "solution" to our
 permanent problems by thinking that our ancestors (parents, grandparents
 etc) were the best possible whom we have to admire and "believe" like gods
 and protect like our most valuable posession. We are still tribes...
 (It's different to be proud for your ancestry from to be demeaning for
 the values of the other people around you).

 As far as the superpowers, of course and they use our divisions and
 thoughtlessness for the best of their benefit; we would be doing
 the same! But don't overexaggerate their influence (except in major war
 situations): we dig out our grave and they push us into it...

 I still can not find any other explanation for the Yugoslavian tragedy,
 except that the most developped sloveno-croats "smelled" instinctively 
 that their future as a Balkan country was bound to be bleak, and they
 gave their best bet if they can be incorporated to the more lucky northern
 countries (the nationalistic hysteria, within the model worldwide in ethnic
 rights yugoslavia, was just an excuse not a rational truth).

 How about Greece. Why are we stack with Skopja in a new "Cyprus" type
 problem? Did our politicians believe that we could win this small dispute
 without any further created permanent trouble? I hope that they know
 what they are doing, and that we are not heading in a trap which the
 other "big" countries made for us (like the USAns trapped in 1974 the then 
 both Greek and Turkish government over the Cyprus question (who reme-
 mber Kissinger?), which now is a pus injury for *both* of the countries 
 (even though some of us believe otherwise...)). (An example of how the
 Ottoman mentality survives in the Balkans is the Kurdish problem: the 
 turkish government has given to them as many political rights as the Ot-
 tomans had given to all of their ex-subjects; how long this can be continued?
 As long as the americans need them (last month 500 people were killed in
 fighting in Anatolia between Turkish and Kurdish forces; the american mass
 media prefer to present the atrocities of Saddam though only...) they
 can keep the publishity low; but if you visit any american university
 library you can see that they select information about the Kurds conti-
 nuousely while they have created organizations through which they have 
 sympathies to the revolted Kurds in Turkey too. Soon or later, when the
 american interests change their position toward Turkey will change accord-
 ingly; and then? One more "balkan" problem will have appeared! But how do
 the Turkish politico-military establishment react to these prospects? With
 exactly the same blind way which the late (not early) Ottomans did...
 (And the populace is manipulated accordingly such as to be willing to
 go to be killed over an already lost case...)
 Similar things can be said for Greece, Bulgaria etc...)


 Gr