Our prime minister said the people who were protesting peaceful against the housing crisis and were brutally assaulted by the police were selfish thugs. The mayor said he would be ruthless on people camping.

So yeah, got some to spare?

Do you think the UK could break apart, with Scotland or Northern Ireland leaving? Would you support it? Curious to hear the Balkan perspective.

Flying into Dubrovnik and out of Zagreb a week later (7 nights, rental car) and torn between two routes:

Option 1 – Coast: Dubrovnik → Makarska Riviera → Split → maybe Zadar → Zagreb. Beautiful scenery, but is the coast still worth it in late October or does everything shut down after the season?

Option 2 – Inland via Bosnia: Dubrovnik → Mostar/Blagaj → Sarajevo → Plitvice → Zagreb. Different culture, food and history, but how are the mountain roads in late October?

Preference for nature and old towns over nightlife. Which route would you pick and why – or is there a hybrid worth considering?

Why?

Im a Catholic albanian and im curious to see what Serbians think of Christian albanians as I have seen a lot of Serbs taunt or joke that albanians aren't real European due to the majority religion which is Islam.

This short documentary, Albanian Women Are Our Sisters, looks back at the largely forgotten history of solidarity between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian anti-war activists during the 90s

The title comes from a protest organized by Women in Black in Belgrade on March 8, 1995, in solidarity with Kosovo Albanian women. The activists were physically attacked by a group of men, the banner was destroyed and an Italian pacifist delegation accompanying them was also targeted

The documentary itself also faced opposition. In 2017, screenings in several Serbian cities were cancelled or disrupted following pressure and threats from nationalist groups

Did you or any of your parents, grandparents or other relatives take part in these protests or know someone who did?

Regarding my country, Turkey, it’s undeniable that the country continues to develop economically. Inflation is declining, although it remains very high. However, wages are still low compared to the cost of living, and economic governance continues to lack strict oversight and effective regulation. Tax evasion remains a significant problem, with some individuals and businesses continuing to avoid their tax obligations.

Despite economic growth, living standards are not improving as much as they should. Turkey also has one of the lowest numbers of doctors per capita among OECD countries, which highlights some of the persistent weaknesses in its healthcare system.

Another major issue is our dependence on foreign energy imports, which contributes significantly to the country’s trade deficit. Oil and gas imports place a considerable burden on our economy and make us vulnerable to fluctuations in international energy prices.

On the other hand, I believe Turkey’s geopolitical position is gradually improving. The Kurdish issue seems to be entering a less confrontational phase, although it is far from being fully resolved. Furthermore, despite regional tensions, Turkey has so far remained relatively insulated from the direct conflicts affecting several Middle Eastern countries, including Israel and some Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran. This relative stability could become an important economic and strategic advantage in the coming years.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about Turkey’s economic future. The country has enormous potential, a diversified economy, and a strategic geographical position. However, poor economic governance, structural imbalances, and the everyday financial struggles of ordinary people still prevent a large part of the population from truly benefiting from economic growth.

I’m therefore cautiously optimistic about Turkey’s long-term potential, but much more skeptical about how its economy is currently being managed.

What about you? What do you think of these economic forecasts, and how do you see the economic and financial future of your country? 🙂

Edit : RIP Romania 😢

Religious as in the amount of the population that actually follows the religion properly (ie church every Sunday and fasting Wednesdays and Fridays, etc for Christians, no alcohol, modest clothes, etc for Muslims). Do you think it would be be any more or less religious than it is, or do you think it would be about the same as it is today?

Every time I see any other neighboring person or non-neighboring person abroad, we immediately get happy and click, and it feels like, for lack of a better word, we’re a “family” with all the balkans. The only country that’s not like this is Greece. I was recently in Greece for the first time in years and talking to this greek friend, and I mentioned being balkan, and she told me “don’t say that in Greece. we don’t like calling ourselves balkan. we’re southern European, like Italy.” Now the answer as to why this is is obvious, they don’t want to associate themselves with poorer countries, and want to rebrand themselves in order to be more appealing for tourists. Clearly it’s working. But it’s just so funny when Greeks genuinely think they’re more similar to Italians. I’m not greek so tell me your opinions on this, I’m only a neighbor, but how on earth can a country have more in common with a non-neighboring country like Italy than its literal neighbors, whom have been under the same empires with for millenniums, have almost identical cuisine, dances, food, music, for most same religion, etc? It’s like they don’t believe you when you say you’re similar. I agree that in a way Greece is different than the rest of us, but it is so overblown.

(to be fair, it’s true that the Greek islands aren’t balkan, they’re literally not a part of the balkan peninsula, but my friend was from Thessaloniki. How are you from Thessaloniki and more similar to Italy than countries 2 hours away from you by car 😭)

Moreover, the countries that have a metro network are not really Balkan countries: Turkey, Greece, and Romania. One could say that Balkan people don’t like metros lol 🙃

My pontian grandparents came from the ottoman empire so they spoke turkish and pontian, the other two from east Macedonia spoke turkish, greek and one of them spoke Bulgarian.

We have this notion that the previous generations were monolingual but it could not be further from the truth.

The tread still looks good though. Surely these will get me through a road trip in the Balkans this January?

Cyril and Methodius from Thessaloniki is my best guess as they are widly known in the Balkans and beyond.

hello all, I’m from the US, and currently working on my dual citizenship in Croatia, as I qualify for citizenship by descent. here’s the thing though, I come from a long line of Enthically Serbs (and orthodox of course), who lived in Zadar county for centuries before coming to the US. the ones that remained ended up in belgrade after many of our ancestors were locked in an Orthodox Church and burned alive. we have visited them in Serbia, but my mom told me I cannot tell them in pursuing Croatian citizenship or they’ll never forgive me. that said, Croatia is an incredible country in so many ways, so I’m very excited for this opportunity. but I’m not sure how I should proceed in conversation should this topic come up while traveling through the country. any advice? thank you all and have a great night.

This is becoming ridiculous. One of the demands is Montenegro has to rename a swimming pool. What do you think about this ?

Just a bit curious as it's a bit of a lesser known language, does it sound slavic or which languages does it sound related to?

I'll link a few examples of it being spoken:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5m0zg1hVPY (random vlog)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CK8uoEZtWk (a podcast)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN13AHef2bA&list=RDLN13AHef2bA&start_radio=1 (a song from the 2000s)

Any ideas? Asking for a friend.