Author Topic: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history  (Read 122873 times)

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Alex_for_King

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #135 on: October 29, 2005, 03:19:06 AM »
Hi all!

I am back.

I would like to move on to lighter subjects. Here is a link which will take you to a web site with a wonderful photo gallery of Belgrade, Serbia's capital of 1.5 million people, which sits on the confluence of two rivers - the Sava and the Danube. It's a city that has a mix of civilizations - from the ancient times, to the ottoman Turks, to the Austrians, to the communists, to the modern era. But, the best of Belgrade is found in the atmosphere and the people, rather than the buildings themselves. So much history...

In the last 5 years a lot has been done to revitalise the city. A lot of work is in progress even as I am writing this.

Marlene has been to Belgrade and she will certainly get a few memories back by looking at the photos. The site is:

http://www.pbase.com/vmarinkovic/belgrade

There are other beautiful galleries besides Belgrade one one level up:

http://www.pbase.com/vmarinkovic/

The author has portrayed Belgrade in different seasons, as well as the people. Many of the comments below the gallery are in English so it's interesting to read those as well.

Hope you enjoy, because the photos are very nice indeed.

Cheers!
Alex

Alex_for_King

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #136 on: October 30, 2005, 02:05:40 AM »
What is the real cause behind the breakup of Yugoslavia?

Special Report by Alex, Belgrade
 
Although a plethora of Western media have, over the last 15 years in a cacophony of lies, made repeated claims that it was "the Serbs" who just, out of the blue, decided to terrorize everybody around them in pursuit of a "Greater Serbia", the real reasons and causes for the breakup of Yugoslavia are totally different. It is incorrect to call Serbian fighters "dogs of war". If that were the case, they would have to be paid to fight somewehere, which they were not. They participated in the legal Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) of the still legal state of Yugoslavia, and also as volunteers, in protecting the country from falling apart, especially protecting the civilian Serbian population in Bosnia and Croatia, which was left at the mercy of the resurrected Croatian Ustashi (Nazis) and Bosnian islamic brigades.

It is also incorrect to mention the so-called Vietnamese syndrome. It is a social psychology term of the 1970s when former US soldiers realized that they were in fact conquerors in Indo-China, thousands of miles away from home, rather than liberators. Once they realized that, they had no desire to fight as strongly and as ferociously, as they would fight in America actually defending it from attackers. Serbs, on the other hand, were not attacking countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, even though we have been attacked by those. Serbs have fought in their own homeland - Yugoslavia, within the borders of their own country.

In the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, violence began as early as 1981, right after Tito died. Albanian extremists demanded an independent Kosovo. They repeated the violence in 1989, just as Serbia was marking 600 years of the Kosovo battle between the Serbs and the Ottoman Turks (1389).    In 1990, Yugoslav Army Intelligence broadcast a secretly taped film which showed Croatia and Slovenia illegally arming themselves for an armed rebellion against the still legal and the only recognized  state - Yugoslavia.

Back in 1990 and 1991, Yugoslavia still existed, was part of the UN, and we were all citizens of Yugoslavia. Also, it was the only recognized international entity, and its army was the only legal army in the country.

The real cause for the breakup of a sovereign European country - Yugoslavia, which was one of the founders of the UN and played a key role during the Cold War by balancing between the East and the West through the Non-Alligned Summit, was violent, armed secession of several of its ethnic groups. The violent, illegal and armed secession is in fact  - terrorism. It was started by pro-German oriented Slovenia and Croatia. They were directly sponsored by Germany, Hungary, the Vatican, the United States, but primarily Germany. The Croats even sang: "Danke Deutschland", or "Thank you Germany". It was the biggest hit on Croatian television, and also showed how truly spineless they are, and always have been. They always knew how to suck up to Germany. Back in the 1940s, they even greeted the Nazis with flowers and coffee, while Serbs organized resistance in the mountains, the first such resistance in Europe.

The fact is that Serbs wanted to preserve Yugoslavia, because Serbs were the largest population of Yugoslavia, unfortunately, scattered all over the place. Thanks to communist and non-Serb Tito, Serbian lands were partitioned and given away to other ethnic groups. Baranja was torn from Vojvodina and given to Croatia, for the "balance of the utilisation of rivers and corn fields". The Serbian lands of Montenegro and Macedonia were made separate Republics and nations within Yugoslavia. They were also given their separate Orthodox Church, while the Serbian Orthodox Church was prosecuted. The muslims living in Bosnia suddenly became a recognized NATION (not religion) in Yugoslavia. Serbs expelled from Kosovo were not allowed to return there after WW 2, while the Kosovo land was stripped off from the Serbian Orthodox Church which owned most of it. If that had not been the case, the Serbian Orthodox Church would today be the owner of Kosovo, clean and simple. Tito had created false nations and countries within Yugoslavia, and that was one of the cornerstones of the future Yugoslav conflict. The world had then recognized those false and never-before-existing countries as sovereign. Only Serbia and Montenegro had their individual statehoods prior to Yugoslavia. Nobody else.

So, Serbs had an interest to keep Yugoslavia together, because, in the event of breakup, many Serbs would be left outside Serbia proper, at the hands of their Croat and Muslim enemies. Serbs also had an emotional reason to keep Yugoslavia together. They were the ones who united the country in 1918 after suffering a lot of casualties, millions, in the process. Out of respect for those millions, Serbs owed it to themselves to try and preserve the country they bled for so much. They failed.

Serbs were the ones who fought on the ALLIED side in BOTH world wars. The ONLY ones. Croats, Bosnian Muslims, Kosovo Albanians... they all goose-stepped all around with their Nazi friends.

Serbs suffered mass genocide at the hands of Croat and Muslim Nazi butchers in Croatia and Bosnia during WW 2. And yet, the naive Serbs forgave them and re-admitted them into Yugoslavia in 1945. Serbs did not want to have a repeat of the genocide in 1990. They remembered WW 2 all too well. Besides, a large portion of the population in Croatia and Bosnia was Serbian - Serbs have been living there for CENTURIES. Croatia and Bosnia wanted independence without any regard of the interests of their vast Serbian population, which, for security reasons, wanted to stay either within Yugoslavia, or to join Serbia proper in case Yugoslavia disappears, but not to remain in the resurrecting Croat Nazi state or in the islamic Bosnian state. The Bosnian Muslims wanted the entire Bosnia to be an islamic state. The Serbs living in Bosnia did not want that, of course.

So, Yugoslavia fell apart in a bloody civil war in which many sides and peoples participated. The individuals from all sides have committed ferocious war and other types of crimes. Those individuals, not entire nations, should be held responsible for their acts.

The fact is that Yugoslavia was plunged into chaos firstly by the West, and then by internal ethnic, national, historic and religious strifes that were directly sponsored, financed and encouraged from the outside. Germany, Italy, the Vatican and America all participated in the breakup of Yugoslavia. The Bosnian Muslims, apart from American support, also received support from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and they even trained mujahedins, formed mujahedin brigades and gave the mujahedins Bosnian passports and citizenships. Those mujahedins beheaded Serbs, but CNN would not show you THAT.

Now, thanks to the totally wrong and misjudged policies of the West, we have several islamic states in the heart of Europe, a potential base for brewing terrorism in Europe. Bosnia - half of it is muslim. Kosovo - a centuries old SERBIAN province that has been violently and illegaly taken away from Serbia, is now mostly muslim, and there is also Albania proper, known for its ties with Al Qaeda and terrorist training camps. The Americans should have supported the christian Serbs, their previous Allies in both world wars, not muslims. After 9-11, some American politicians realized that they had supported the wrong side in the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Why? Perhaps to please oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia. Perhaps because the Albanian drug-trafficking and gun-totting lobby is very powerful in the US, known for financing some US politicians and their campaigns.

If anyone wants to talk about the war in ex-Yugoslavia, he or she needs to know some history first, and also the roots of the problem. And the root is in violent, illegal secession, armed separatism and terrorism against a legal and recognized state, by various ethnic and national groups, sponsored and encouraged from the outside.

palimpsest

  • Guest
Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #137 on: October 31, 2005, 06:16:08 PM »
Quote
Hi all!

I am back.

I would like to move on to lighter subjects. Here is a link which will take you to a web site with a wonderful photo gallery of Belgrade, Serbia's capital of 1.5 million people, which sits on the confluence of two rivers - the Sava and the Danube. It's a city that has a mix of civilizations - from the ancient times, to the ottoman Turks, to the Austrians, to the communists, to the modern era. But, the best of Belgrade is found in the atmosphere and the people, rather than the buildings themselves. So much history...

In the last 5 years a lot has been done to revitalise the city. A lot of work is in progress even as I am writing this.

Marlene has been to Belgrade and she will certainly get a few memories back by looking at the photos. The site is:

 http://www.pbase.com/vmarinkovic/belgrade

 There are other beautiful galleries besides Belgrade one one level up:

 http://www.pbase.com/vmarinkovic/

The author has portrayed Belgrade in different seasons, as well as the people. Many of the comments below the gallery are in English so it's interesting to read those as well.

Hope you enjoy, because the photos are very nice indeed.

Cheers!
Alex


Great photos Alex, thank you very much

I have a request
I'm trying to find recent interior photos of St. Sava new Patriarchal Cathedral in Belgrade
can you help me?

popov_2000

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #138 on: December 06, 2005, 08:58:39 PM »
Hello guys,

In 2005 the American director Brian De Palma shot the movie “The Black Dahlia” in Bulgaria. In the movie we can see Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank and Aaron Eckhart. I found this article about the movie. There are a lot of small pictures on the left side. One of the pictures shows a building. This building is Vrana Palace. I did not know that they shot there. We would have to wait for the movie to find more.


dvoretzky

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #139 on: December 07, 2005, 08:59:42 AM »
About half a dozen films were shot in this wonderful location. I remember the Bird of Prey flop, Soraya, The Portrait of Dorian Grey, The Nonantola Children etc.

Offline Kimberly

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #140 on: December 07, 2005, 03:32:03 PM »
If this "Black Dahlia" is about the horrific murder that took place in America some years ago I expect it will get an adult rating so a lot of the "youngsters" might not be able to see it
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popov_2000

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #141 on: December 26, 2005, 07:32:36 AM »
Quote
About half a dozen films were shot in this wonderful location. I remember the Bird of Prey flop, Soraya, The Portrait of Dorian Grey, The Nonantola Children etc.


I remember when living in Bulgaria (before 2000) I incidentally caught an American movie on television that was shot in Sofia even though the action was supposedly happening in Moscow. All of a sudden they showed Vrana Palace. The people in the movie were eating a breakfast on the loan in front of the palace. In the next shot they were inside the Palace. It was really unexpected the way I caught this movie considering I was just surfing the channels to find something.  

palimpsest

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #142 on: December 26, 2005, 11:58:56 AM »
there are many movies that are being shot in eastern-countries [Russia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, etc.] for a simple reason:

it is cheaper!

popov_2000

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #143 on: December 29, 2005, 09:02:07 AM »
This is more then that. The action in the movie was supposed to be happening in Russia. It is not like that action was supposed to happen in France and they chose Bulgaria. They could of still gone to Russia, however they chose to shoot in Bulgaria. I recognized everything because I have seen it before, however for someone who have never been to Russia or Bulgaria it would make no difference.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by popov_2000 »

palimpsest

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #144 on: January 05, 2006, 12:37:13 PM »


Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife, Czech Countess Sophie Chotek, leave the reception at City Hall and walk toward an open car in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914. A short time later the couple were assassinated by a Serb nationalist. (AP Photo)



An artist's rendition shows the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife, Czech Countess Sophie Chotek, during their visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914. The assassin, Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, left, of the group Black Hand, was captured. The incident precipitated World War I. (AP Photo)

ilyala

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #145 on: January 05, 2006, 12:43:19 PM »
i read somewhere (i don't remember where) that there was a first tentative to assasinate franz ferdinand that failed but that the one who tried thought he'd done it and went to a pub to celebrate with the rest of the gang. but then franz ferdinand and his wife passed through the front of pub and he tried again and this time he succeeded...

talk about fate...

palimpsest

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #146 on: January 08, 2006, 05:03:14 PM »


The Big Four of the Allies chat while gathering in Versailles for the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended World War I, in this 1919 photo. They are, left to right, David Lloyd George, of Great Britain, Vittorio Orlando, of Italy, Georges Clemenceau, of France, and Woodrow Wilson, United States President. (AP Photo)

palimpsest

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #147 on: January 08, 2006, 05:04:57 PM »


Allied leaders and officials gather in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles for the signing of the peace Treaty of Versailles in France on June 28, 1919. The peace treaty mandate for Germany, negotiated during the Paris Peace Conference in Jan., is represented by Allied leaders French premier George Clemenceau, standing, center; U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, seated at left; Italian foreign minister Giorgio Sinnino; and British prime minister Lloyd George. (AP Photo)

ilyala

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #148 on: January 09, 2006, 04:26:17 AM »
i've always wondered how italian prime minister was included in those four 'big guys' and yet italy was pretty much ignored at the peace talks, so much that it influenced the next 20 years towards mussolini, fascism and alliance with germany in the second world war...

palimpsest

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Re: The Balkans--their cultures, languages, religion and history
« Reply #149 on: January 12, 2006, 07:41:57 PM »
I would apreciate if there are some people who will be interested in saying what movies from and about the "Balkans" they like/enjoy. Also what directors and actors. It would be good if the movies you will list here are available internationaly [if they have an English name at least].



I confess I like almost all films of Serbian director Emir Kusturica, and especially "Underground" 1995 [I also undestand why some don't like them]

I also like a Romanian director called Lucian Pintilie. Two of his movies are available with English subtitles:
"The Oak"/"Balanta" 1992
"An Unforgettable Summer" 1994 [with Kristin Scott Thomas]
[some of his movies other movies are available in France, because they are usually Rom.-Fr. coproductions]

I know little abou Bulgarian, Greek, Albanian, or other Serbian movies. [I wonder if we can include Hungarian and Turkish movies as well?]
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by palimpsest »