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Thicker than Water? Kin, Religion, and Conflict in the Balkans

1998; United States Army War College; Volume: 28; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.55540/0031-1723.1903

0031-1723

P. H. Liotta, Anna Simons,

Turkey's Politics and Society

Listen then, to what you do not know.The three rivers of the ancient world of the dead--the Acheron, the Phlegethon, and the Cocytus--today belong to the underworlds of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity; their flow divides the three hells--Gehenna, Hades, and the icy hell of the Mohammedans--beneath the onetime Khazar lands.And there, at the junction of these three borders, are confronted the three worlds of the dead: Satan's fiery state with the nine circles of the Christian Hades, with Lucifer's throne . . . the Moslem underworld . . .kingdom of icy torment; and Geburah's territory, to the left of the Temple, where the Hebrew gods of evil, greed, and hunger sit in Gehenna . . . .In the Jewish hell, in the state of Belial, the angel of darkness and sin, it is not Jews who burn, as you think.Those like yourself, all Arabs or Christians, burn there.Similarly, there are no Christians in the Christian hell--those who reach the fires are Mohammedans or of David's faith, whereas in Iblis' Moslem torture chamber they are all Christians and Jews, not a single Turk or Arab.[1] It has been clear since the outbreak of hostilities that no existing European security organization--not the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, or the Western European Union, or the Council of Europe--could stop the slaughter.The failure to develop a "European" solution for the former Yugoslavia led to direct UN involvement.When that effort failed, the United States, albeit initially reluctantly, led the NATO alliance to halt hostilities and began the painstaking process of rebuilding social, political, economic, and military structures in the region.US diplomatic and military leadership in the former Yugoslavia helped stop the war in Bosnia, led to the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement in December 1995, and sustained the search for regional peace.Absent US leadership, there could have been more refugees and dead and increased risk for the conflict expanding to Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania, as well as to NATO partners Greece and Turkey.Unfortunately, only prolonged investment of significant NATO resources and placing personnel at risk are likely to prevent the return of open conflict and a resumption of genocide in the Balkans.Events in 1998 in Kosovo suggest just how volatile the region remains.NATO's ability to deter violence may now guarantee its continuing presence in the region, not unlike the decades-long involvement of UN peacekeepers in Cyprus, while stabilizing the area before exiting will require extraordinary skill.Yet in all the reports of Balkan progress and backsliding two key elements are seldom investigated in any depth: the role of kinship and the role of religion.This article suggests that any international effort to eliminate conflict and ensure regional (indeed, European) security must recognize and deal with these two potent forces.