Here I will speak only as a reader. Reading Literary Balkans I gradually find my own cultural identification. For years all of us here on the Balkans have been enemies despite being close nations. We were enemies with Tito, with Turkey, with Greece, with the revisionist Ceausescu and Enver Hoja. As a result of the isolation, today we know better the American than the Balkan culture, to which we belong by blood. And which, again because of the provincial isolation, is still, thank God, ours alone.

For now only the Balkan has remained a spiritual reservation.

I was in Poland and decided to taste something authentically Polish, but I found no such thing. Everywhere they sold the same things as here: “Milka”, “Nestle”, “Mars”, “Danone”. The same films were played in the cinemas as well, with Harry Potter at the head. In the restaurants and bars you could hear English language evergreens, and for quite some time there’s no difference in the attire of the European people. Today this is called globalization, and its taste – Euro pudding.

Today it’s only in the farthest Balkan provinces that you can still find something authentic – kaimak (cream) in Serbia, Tikvesh wine in Macedonia, lokum (delight) and halva in Turkey and boza (millet ale) in Bulgaria.

The term “Balkan” appeared in Austrian documents and meant the European part of the Ottoman Empire. The notion is a result of a mistake – they thought the mountain range crossed the peninsula. Europe to this day does not know the Balkans, neither do the Balkans know Europe. Mostly because we write and think in different alphabets.

And the word Balkan is Turkish and that is also indicative.

Today while Western Europe is busy with unification, we, in the east, are busy dividing. A Ukrainian colleague of mine said regarding this, “Before they got united, they differentiated themselves properly.”

We, as always, will first enter Europe and then start differentiating ourselves from them. Every unification rests on mutual benefit, and what we can offer is more than obvious. But the saddest thing is that over there we’re misunderstood, just as they are over here. The Balkan spirit is understandable up to where rakiya is drunk before the meal and songs are sung about blood vendettas. From Albania to Cyprus and from the Carpathians to Crete.

So, let us first differentiate ourselves before joining Europe. And in order to differentiate we have to identify ourselves. Today many film directors attack Europe with Beckett and Shakespeare, but Andrich, Kazandzakis, Kadare and Kosturitsa succeeded. They succeeded using Balkan topics. Because before people open the door, everywhere they first ask who you are.

Today identification is the worst problem on the Balkans. And the bloodiest. And will be such until it becomes clear that you cannot divide something indivisible.