The Balkans : A (compound) fracture

BALKANS: THE FRACTURE THE EUROPEAN BASIS FOR DJIHAD Seventeen years after NATO intervened in Kosovo, the Balkans in their turn are hit by the three phenomena which are shaking up the whole Europe: first, the Islamic terrorism which is rushing from the Near East, secondly, the mass immigration originated from the Middle East and Africa, thirdly, the bursting process of Nations-States which is going on. The Islamic Daesh already holds a bastion on the European ground in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where 600 terrorists make up a “sleeping network” which is ready to strike at every point of Western Europe. These guys are easily filtering into the broad flow of migrants who take the traditional Balkans track coming from Turkey towards Western Europe. Besides, the bursting process of Nations-States, which began in former Yugoslavia during the nineties, was intensified with the self-proclaimed independence of Montenegro in 2006 and of Kosovo in 2008, which look like very flimsy new states, the future of which seems very gloomy. As a matter of fact, the Balkans became the favorite ground for the “Big Game” of the Great Powers. South-Eastern Europe, which is situated between the Euro-Atlantic integration and the Russian and Chinese and Turkish expansionism, is engaged in reliving the Cold War fractures. The authors, who are specialists of the Balkans area, are trying to give a rational look on the ties between these three phenomena which apparently look like independent, but after all, are intermingled.