From Genocide to Dialogue: Christian-Muslim Relations in the Former Yugoslavia
Extremely complex historical circumstances and modern political manipulations have caused in the Balkans three major waves of genocides during the twentieth century. The conflicts were so varied and widespread that it will not be possible to provide an adequate overview in this paper. The first one...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
George Fox University
2014
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| In: |
Occasional papers on religion in Eastern Europe
Year: 2014, Volume: 34, Issue: 3, Pages: 14-34 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Extremely complex historical circumstances and modern political manipulations have caused in the Balkans three major waves of genocides during the twentieth century. The conflicts were so varied and widespread that it will not be possible to provide an adequate overview in this paper. The first one took place during the I and II Balkan Wars in 1912-1913, in which genocides occurred in the effort of four allied countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia) to liberate themselves from the Ottoman Empire. Then the second war broke out leading to genocidal ethnic cleansing as the embattled nations of the Balkans attempted to delineate ethnic borders. The second great wave of genocides took place during and right after World War II (1941-1948). The Holocaust practically exterminated the Jewish population but genocide was also carried out against Romas (Gypsies), Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia, and in some localities against Muslims. After the end of the war in 1945, retaliatory genocide took place against the German minority and politicide against the former pro-Nazi allies. During the wars of the dismemberment of Yugoslavia in the 1990s genocides and massacres occurred again, of which the most publicized was the Srebrenica genocide of around 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. Retaliatory genocidal ethnic cleansing also took place as in previous wars. War crimes and crimes against humanity were also carried out in other regions of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as in Kosovo and a similar conflict was barely averted in Macedonia. After the first wave of genocides early in the twentieth century no one was punished for their crimes, which may have given the impression to future perpetrators that they would not be facing justice. After World War II, however, there were trials of war crimes, but no thoroughgoing discussion took place to resolve the chaotic situation of WWII. Interreligious dialogue—in fact any kind of dialogue—did not take place as this approach was not as yet practiced or even known in the region. During and after the wars of the 1990s that caused the break-up of Yugoslavia into seven small independent countries the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague and local courts grappled and continue to do so with the genocides and other war crimes attempting to single out individuals responsible for the worst slaughter in order to prevent later accusations of collective guilt. In addition numerous regional and local interreligious and interethnic dialogues are being |
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| ISSN: | 2693-2148 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Occasional papers on religion in Eastern Europe
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