The Balkan Wars: Conquest, Revolution, And Retribution From The Ottoman Era To The Twentieth Century And Beyond, by Andre Gerolymatos

It has been a few years since I read any books about the Balkan Wars, but it has been an era of history that has long interested me because of the seeming futility of time to have any effect in calming the violence that can be found in the Balkans. This particular book is not itself a mere narrative history of the Balkan Wars, which make up only a small portion of the contents of this excellent and well-researched, if somewhat gloomy work. Rather, this book is a work of cultural sociology in seeking to uncover the patterns of history that have led to constant conflict, the choices that led to cycles of endless acts of retribution, the cultural scripts of martyrdom, betrayal, and defeat that have led to the nursing of grudges and the tampering of history and memory and the continued loss of potential because what could be used to benefit people and societies is instead used on futile attempts to resurrect historical glories and act in vengeance against one’s rivals.

This book begins a long time ago, at the time of the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire, and it examples the historical accidents of succession in those realms, its fatal weakness of depending on growth, and the failure of the Byzantine Empire to crush the Ottoman Empire at its lowest moment, which may have prolonged its survival. The author also engages in some thoughtful and well-researched revisionist history on the Battle of Kosovo, pointing out that it was not decisive in eliminating Serbia as an independent power, as had previously been thought. There are a lot of people who come off looking very poor in this book, whether it is exploitative Phanariot Greeks in areas like Moldova and Rumania, paranoid “reforming” Ottoman emperors who attempt to centralize power but alienable their populace through collective judgment (including the brutal killing of unarmed religious leaders), and brigands whose oppressive and exploitative ways was a result of and contributed to chaos and anarchy throughout the Balkans.

This book is full of startling insights, including the rather two-faced nature of Western interest in the region, as well as the fact that the area is called the Balkans when there is something murderous or barbarous going on there and Southeastern Europe when it is peaceful, as if it only has the right to be called Europe when it is civilized enough. Also of interest is the fact that at least some of the ethnic cleansing in terms of forced population transfers (a recurrent feature of life in the region) was acceptable in the WWII period and before, but not by the time the 1990’s rolled around and Yugoslavia fell apart. This book also manages to answer a question I have long had about Greece, and about the nature of the sprawl around Athens and the lack of development of other cities, which is related to problems of endemic rural banditry and a strong regional identity that has hindered national development and cultural integration. Of course, other countries have suffered from the same sorts of problems as well.

Taking a broadly chronological and thematic approach, this particular book is strong on insight, even if there are few suggestions for a better future in the region except for better integration with Europe and the hope of economic development (which has not necessarily helped Greece, the only nation in the area to be part of the Eurozone), at least if one looks at historical insight as to the reasons why the Balkans got to be the way they are. Whether one reads this book for the insights about the reasons why the Balkans are dysfunctional mess (and part of that blame belongs to Western European countries, part to the Ottomans, and part to the peoples of the region themselves), or for the dramatic stories about colorful and usually doomed figures and historical patterns and trends involving culture and politics. People reading this book will find a lot of deeply poignant stories, as well as a lot of dark occurrences full of nuanced shades of blame, and the need for a clean slate and some forgiveness so that people can move on to seek a better existence than a repetition of patterns of violence.