Nationalism is the root cause of such ignorance and prejudice.

Perhaps one of the most positive things that will come from membership in the European Union is that in every single Balkan country, there is a new push to modernize public education, beginning with history textbooks.

Over the past century, all the people of the region have been fed a steady diet of propaganda, racism and pseudo-science about themselves and their neighbors. All of this was done in order to brainwash entire peoples into believing that they were the rightful heirs to a glorious and noble civilization like no other. To inculcate them with the idea that their peoples have enjoyed pure, racial continuity since ancient times.

When history is divorced from nationalism and looked at in light of the latest science available, it quickly becomes apparent that all the peoples of the Balkans have lived intertwined, interdependent lives since the beginning of time, regardless of religion.

I'm a second-generation Albanian-American living in New York City. As an American, I grew up in a multi-racial, plurastic society embracing people from all corners of the earth. As the Balkans and Turkey move forward together and the regional economies become increasingly interdependent, nationalisms and the prejudices they breed will become obsolete. Living standards and incomes will gradually rise, and with that, the level of public discourse and civil society will rise as well.

The people of the Balkans and Turkey have everything in common. They are all rightful heirs to thousands of years of shared history, whether they are ready to acknowledge it or not.

Papa Lazo 11 Jun 2008, 10:21 - Report