Balkan Region Quotes

I am equally proud of my Serbian origin and my Croatian fatherland.

My father is from the village of Beranci, Macedonia, and my mother is from Greece.

Croatia did not want Europe to be divided as to the start of Croatia's EU entry talks.

We are Macedonians but we are Slav Macedonians. That's who we are! We have no connection to Alexander the Greek and his Macedonia. The ancient Macedonians no longer exist, they had disappeared from history long time ago. Our ancestors came here in the 5th and 6th century (AD).

I am neither a Serb nor a Bulgarian, I am a South Slav.

Many Europeans are confused by the terms Roma and Romania. They wonder if it is an ethnicity or a nation of 22 million citizens.

When people ask me where I am from I never say, 'Serbia.' I always say, 'I come from a country that no longer exists.'

You know, in each segment of ex-Yugoslavia, multi-ethnic life is lost, except I think we somehow still have this in Serbia.

Kosovo's destiny is clearly to join the European Union at some point.

I never wanted an independent Bosnia. I wanted Yugoslavia. That is my country.

Poland is different from the other so-called socialist countries. We have a different background. Poland belongs to the West, not the East. We belong to the Mediterranean, Latin culture, not to the Byzantine, which is very different and which you find in Bulgaria and even parts of Czechoslovakia and, of course, Romania.

Albania, Macedonia and Greece have managed to create a good partnership in the south of the Continent and are making progress in blocking the spread of the conflict. But any spillover could destroy this European-oriented partnership and create problems for the European Union countries themselves.

My opponents ask why we haven’t yet solved the Bosnian problem. Well, it started in 1369.

Albania is located sixty miles across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. It borders Montenegro and Kosovo to the north, Macedonia to the east, and Greece to the south. If you know nothing about 'the Land of the Eagles,' relax. You're not alone.

Slovenia wishes that Montenegro will continue successfully its way towards European integration and will reach peaceful co-habitation with other former Yugoslav peoples within a united Europe.

Though many people said there is no joint border between Turkey and Montenegro, it feels like we are next to each other. We are in the same neighborhood.

Kosovo is not a part of Serbia. It is the very heart of Serbia.

There a lot of occasions when Albanians cause trouble, but then we are also very nice people. People sometimes forget that there are good people from the Balkans as well.

Bosnia is a country of hatred and fear.

The Serbian people certainly will never be an obstacle for the Montenegrins to have their own country.

Guidebooks used to write the name of my city in two ways: Gjirokaster in Albanian, and Argyrokastron for foreigners. The classical-sounding name somehow gave it better credentials, because people in the Balkans famously exaggerate and often call their villages cities.

Bosnia and Herzegovina. Austria-Hungary reserves the right to annex these provinces at whatever moment she shall deem opportune.

In antiquity, there were three regions in southern Europe: Greece, Rome, and Ilyria. Albanian is the only survivor of the Ilyrian languages. That is why it has always intrigued the great linguists of the past.

Of course, in no case would we allow the creation of a regional union in the Balkans, directed against the Soviet Union and Bulgaria.

My father is from Bosnia, and my mother is from Croatia, but I was born in Sweden.