Mirsad Kriještorac

Despite the three books’ noted shortcomings, they all provide solid information on how Eritrean nationhood and identity began to form and mature and how it continues to transform through a transnational conception of the country. Such a complex national identification project cannot be forced upon the population, as was seen in the attempts of Ethiopia’s Amharization of Eritreans. The project will instead require a willful merging of the existing cultural traits of different Eritrean ethnies to create a new national Eritrean polity. In any case, the ongoing case of Eritrea provides a good case to observe how new identification becomes meaningful to form a basis for social activities that are needed for a group to be regarded as a nation.

Since Balkan ethnicities are primarily organized along locally-practiced religious lines, regional monotheistic religions are seen as the source of the conflicts there. However, even a brief historical examination shows different patterns, where the people of the region lived in long periods of peace and solidarity while practicing their separate religious traditions. Significantly, the conflicts occurred when the Balkan people followed non-religious political processes and ideas which originated outside of the region. Hence, this paper attempts to observe the extant representations of the Balkans, examine the brief history of the region to reveal patterns of amity and enmity, and bring forth a different historical –and possible future– reality.