(Estimated Pub Date) the Challenge of Ethnic Conflict to National and International Order in the 1990S: Geographic Perspectives- October 1995

Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
of the converts w'ere related to the Nestorian Christian
movement (Bogomils) who formed a third Christian
group throughout the Balkans at that time——that is, in
addition to the formal Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
groups. Having been persecuted by these churches,
the Bogomils welcomed the Turks and willingly
embraced Islam. Those peoples of mixed 'I‘url<ish
(usually the descendants of Turkish soldiers and
locally converted women) tended to call themselves
Turks, while those that were not of mixed ancestry
retained other appellations (as mentioned above). In
the Sandzak many locals adopted Islam, along with
many of the Albanians. It is important to note that
among the Greeks and Serbs when someone converted
to Islam they were rejected as members of those eth-
nic communities and were usually considered Turks.
On the other hand, among the Macedonian, Albanian,
and Bulgarian peoples there was a tendency to iden-
tify the converts as Moslem Macedonians, Albanians,
and Bulgarians, or just as Moslems. Those who con-
verted to Islam frequently intermarried with Turks and
with each other. The Sandzak Moslems of Serbia
were, as the other Muslim peoples of the Balkans, pro-
Turkish in their cultural and political leanings.
QUESTION: What role does religion play in the con-
flict in former Yugoslavia?
DR. WIXMAN: _It is the position of the Catholic lead-
ers of Zagreb and the Serbian patriarch in Belgrade
that this is not a religious war. The religious overtones
of the current conflict are largely the result of the
elites—former Communist Party heads and intellectu-
als—of Zagreb, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Budapest
assigning identities to local populations who often did
not self-identify on the basis of religion. For example,
Muslim Serbs and Muslim Croats never defined them-
selves as a people. They never said that they were
Muslims. They called themselves Bosnians (Bos-
niaks). They were defined by the Yugoslav Govern-
ment in 1971 as Muslimani. When the conflict got out
of hand in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgrade pressed
the idea that the Muslims must become Christian. In
the Sandzak no one thought of themselves as Serbs or
as Muslims. In the same way, the former atheistic Bul-
garian Communist Govemment said that, in order to
be a good Bulgarian, Turks had to change their names
to Bulgarian names—-that means from Muslim to
Christian ones. In Albania, it was the reverse.
l
The Sandzak Muslims are under pressure to convert in
order to prove that they are true Serbo-Macedonians.
In terms of conflict, these Muslims know that they
have no choice but to ally themselves with Albanians.
There is an interesting demographic trend taking
place. The Muslims of Macedonia have made their
position clear: they are giving up Macedonian and are
beginning to speak Albanian. Albanianism has
become almost a rallying point for Muslims of Serbia
and Macedonia under the current context.
DR. BOULSEN: To understand Bosnia, I think, per-
haps, a better perspective is to look at the situation in
Northem Ireland because that is not a religious war
either. Although people are identified on the basis of
the traditional religions that they have inherited, the
roots of the conflict lie in two different nations that are
warring in a very small area.
DR. WIXMAN: \lV1th regard to the situation in the
former Yugoslavia, the most important issue to the
Croats today is the Krajina. They will never compro-
mise on it and they cannot. If the Serbs take Krajina
and create a separate state or annex it to the new Ser-
bian republic of Bosnia, all coastal Croatia and Herze-
govina would be isolated and would fall of its own
accord. Serbs will temporarily accommodate Croatian
positions because they know that, as long as the West
insists that there be a peace treaty in which this
remains in Serbian hands, this falls tomorrow.
Serbian goals are to create a greater Serbia. The Serbs
of Serbia do not care about the Serbs of Krajina. The
Serbs want Krajina as a piece of geographical terri-
tory, and the Serbs who live there became their excuse
to get it.
QUESTION: Dr. Wixman, could you comment on the
conditions under which you think Albania might actu-
ally become involved in the Kosovo situation? I ask
this against the backdrop that many people think of
Albania itself as an ethnically homogeneous country.
In fact, as you well know and have written about, it is
a country divided between Tosks and Gegs, and the
Tosks are very much in control in Albania, yet it’s the
Gegs who are in Kosovo.
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Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268