I am from the Balkans-proud or ashamed?

Abstract

First of all I have to clarify what constitutes the Balkans. Am I from the Balkans? To date, despite all the debates, books and articles on this topic, nobody has been able to clarify and explain clearly where the borders of the Balkan area are. So it is still not clear if Romania is included or not. Does it depend on values? Do Romanians have the same values as the Turks? We have a different religion, different administrative organization, different laws and rules. Of course we share a common history but this does not give us common values. A region and the identity of the people populating this region are defined and explained through geography, common history, stereotypes, habits and some other criteria that will be used to attempt to answer this question. The task is not easy. "Nothing is simple in the Balkans." This sentence, which opens David Owen's book "Balkan Odyssey ", expresses the complexity and difficulty of researching this subject. Should I be proud? Of course I should be! This region is characterized by a huge cultural diversity! Should I be ashamed? The negative connotation of being Balkan has the stigma of being an area of chaos, crisis and retards... The study of the Balkans can be interdisciplinary, so using several fields of study, such as sociology, ethnography, anthropology, political science and cultural studies cannot be avoided. That is why the aim of the paper is to analyze the Balkan identity, in an interdisciplinary approach and to find the place (if there is one) of Balkan characteristics in Romanian cultural traits. Through data from both old and new literature, as well as other sources (including the European Parliament and the European Commission), I will endeavor to establish who is within and who is outside the Balkans.