Balkanalysis.com

Part 1 of this fascinating interview with a leading Macedonian ethnomusicologist discusses her interests in the field, the challenges one faces in coaxing songs out of reluctant villagers, and the importance of ritual music in Macedonian culture. 32 year-old Velika Stojkova Serafimovska, a professional ethnomusicologist at the Macedonian Institute for Folk Dance and Culture, thoroughly [...]

Tito Petkovski, the longtime SDSM man and losing presidential candidate in 1999, announced his departure from the governing party this week. Simultaneously joining him in dissent, if not in camaraderie, were devotees of another Tito – Josip Broz, that is. Petkovski’s exodus from the SDSM came as no surprise. For a long time, rumors of [...]

Exactly one year ago, this exclusive report from the top of the Caucasus Mountains was published on Antiwar.com . The beautiful pictures and testimony from ordinary civilians trapped by political interests makes for compelling and provocative reading. When it comes to coverage of the ongoing feud between Georgia and Russia, the Western mass media have [...]

Could an enigma of the “Da Vinci Code’ variety be unfolding in the Macedonian wilds? In Vevchani, that loveably eccentric southwestern hamlet where last month was discovered the ruins of an old church, archaeologists already knew that they had a significant find. But they are still trying to figure out exactly how a strange story [...]

Some readers may have wondered what exactly is that funny little man in the ad on the left side of the page all about. So let’s take a minute to explain. Since 2004, Balkanalysis.com has been partnered with the Central and Eastern European Online Library, a cool German company that makes the works of a [...]

This article, originally published by Antiwar.com on September 24, 2005, points out the difficulties the US will face as it seeks to take over control of Russia’s strategic southern sphere of influence. While intervention is never praiseworthy, the one thing that can be said about international involvement in the Caucasus is that it has at [...]

By Darko Angelov (Photos courtesy of Samir Ljuma) In this engaging travel piece, the author recounts a summer 2005 expedition into Macedonia’s wine country, and a trip down the country’s ‘other’ lake- Tikves (pronounced Tikvesh), which is also the general name for the entire dry and dusty region of south-central Macedonia where the country’s best [...]

Earlier this summer, the 25th anniversary of the death of Josip Broz Tito was an occasion for mild Yugo-nostalgia across the former Yugoslavia, with Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski even vowing, perhaps not entirely facetiously, to erect a statue of Tito in Skopje. Josip Broz is revered by the older generations who nostalgically recall peace and [...]

By Dejan Ciric* If we want to comprehend the richness and diversity of private and public life in a town with a sense of community, like Pirot in southeastern Serbia, we should firstly outline the cultural and political influences at work. The fact that Pirot is situated in the very center of the Balkans and [...]

This classic analysis, which originally appeared on April 23, 2004 on Antiwar.com, was written just as Cypriots were to vote on the “Annan Plan” for a united Cyprus, in a frenzy to prevent the divided, Greek Cypriot Republic from entering the EU alone. This article points out the dangers of the Annan Plan and accurately [...]