1995-10-01a- CIA Conference Report: THE CHALLENGE OF ETHNIC CONFLICT TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN THE 1990S GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES 01-Oct-95

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