Imagining the Balkans!

Etymology and evolving meaning.

The ancient Greek name for the Balkan Peninsula is the Peninsula of Haemus. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia.

The region takes its name from the "Balkan" mountain range in Bulgaria (from the Turkish balkan meaning "a chain of wooded mountains").
The name is still preserved in Central Asia where there exist the Balkan Mountains and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. On a larger scale, one long continuous chain of mountains crosses the region in the form of a reversed letter S, from the Carpathians south to the Balkan range proper, before it marches away east into Anatolian Turkey. On the west coast, an offshoot of the Dinaric Alps follows the coast south through Dalmatia and Albania, crosses Greece and continues into the sea in the form of various islands. The word was based on Turkish balakan 'stone, cliff', which confirms the pure 'technical' meaning of the term. The mountain range that runs across Bulgaria from west to east (Stara Planina) is still commonly known as the Balkan Mountains.

The first time the name "Balkan" was used in the West for the mountain range in Bulgaria was in a letter by Buonaccorsi Callimarco, an Italian humanist, writer and diplomat in 1490. An English traveler, John Morritt, introduced this term into the English literature at the end of the 18th century, and other authors started applying the name to the wider area between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The concept of the "Balkan peninsula" was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808.

I decided to create this video as a journey inside the rich historical, cultural and traditional values that every person who came from this area conserve in their souls in a line where Westen and Orientalism waves form a melting point, gifting us a deep great treasures that all the world envy (who badly talks about us) and admire (who really appreciate this magic lands).
Althought greeks, serbians, bosnians, turks, albanians, macedonians, bulgarians, rumanians are divided for some politcal reasons. The culture, the tradition, the habits, the dishes unite us.

United state of Balkans!



References:

Maria Torodova: Imagining the Balkans
Kristo Frasheri: Albanian national questions and albanian identity.
Robert Maintain: Ottoman empire history.

Soundtracks:

Burcu Gunes: Son Mektup - Turkey
Serkan Cagri: Sutka oro - Bulgaria
Mathaio Giannoulis/Lefteris Vazaios - Pitsirika - Greece
Mahala Rai Band Vs Shantal: Mahalageasca (Bucovina Dub) - Romania
Goran Bregoviç: Mesecina - Serbia/Bosnia-Herzegovina/Montenegro/Macedonia
Artur Kola: Kendon Xemi (Valle permetare)- Albania

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Balkans
• music
• places
• history
• cosmpolitism
• ottomans
• albania
• turkey
• serbia
• romania
• bregoviç
• pitsirika
• bulgaria

[iapetoc6]

Someone must read history,

1 Hemos is the greek name, and it is ΑΙΜΟΣ aimos means blood mountains,

the reason is that if you enter from makedonia there a large area full of red soil,

2nd after today Kresnas, there were ancient Thrace tribes that even the ancient makedonians afraid, and they did n't fall neither to persians,

2nd Balkan comes the Latin Vulkan, the reason is that the from the ancient times, at that mountains they knew the iron procedure

Vulkan is Hardenening things with Fire

[gertb]

@iapetoc6 Thank you very much for you explanation but the word Balkan is from Altaic-Turkish languages. Balkan is to be found also in todays Kazakistan!

[iann89s]

hahaahahahahahha the change from Serbia/Croatia to Albania was very very.... funny....hahahahahahaha.......­..nice video.great job!!!

[gertb]

I'm Albanian, so please!

[TheSyndicateGreece]

And great and nice.....that fucking "Pitsirika" is an abomination that shouldnt even be called music, why did u add it in the video?

[gertb]

Sorry:(

[Macedon2010]

The Balkans - Ancient Makedon ...

[IllyriPower]

LONG LIVE ALBANIANS !

[iann89s]

i didnt say it for bad....stupid!........definate­ly your video was great.........sooo pleaseeeeeee

[iann89s]

But putting this song in the greek part......was an unforgivable mistake!

[khaenos]

hey can you tell me what's the name of the first and second song? Both are beautiful, the 1st one is turkish right?the 2nd one sounds like its bulgarian. Nice!