Балканский полуостров: национальная идентичность как доминантный фактор сепаратизма

Abstract

Balkan separatism has deep historical roots, and its modern size and forms are the product of numerous local, regional and global events. Today, the Balkan Peninsula has become synonymous with extreme fragmentation. It is the countries located in this terri-tory that are characterized by a contradictory com-bination of modernity with the past, which leads to the emergence of socio-economic and political mul-tiplicity, exacerbation and overlapping of heteroge-neous conflicts. As a result, in the end there are pro-cesses of redistribution of borders and the for-mation of new independent states. In particular, this concerns the problem of determining the status of Kosovo and the settlement of interethnic and re-gional confrontations. In view of these circumstanc-es, the paper discusses the features of the people’s ethnic identity formation on the Balkan Peninsula and its influence in shaping the destructive pro-cesses. The main factors of national identity that contribute to the development of separatist tenden-cies are also identified. Special attention is paid to the content of the Westphalia system, which today is no longer an effective tool for ensuring the sover-eignty of states. The contradiction of Westphalia principles, which formed the basis of wars in the former Yugoslav republics, is also indicated. It was found that, in fact, the separatist movements and the breakup of Yugoslavia were due to objective problems in the development of common statehood, which consisted in the fact that the idea of the Yu-goslav national state did not take place in the coun-try, because the political and cultural identity of the country's population was not ensured. Particular emphasis is placed on economic factors that stimu-late the emergence of conflicts between ethnic groups and provoked separatist movements.