BALKANISTIC WORLDS

Author: bforum1992@gmail.com

  • Selcuk Kursad Koca
    Sakarya University (Türkiye)
    [skursadkoca@sakarya.edu.tr]
    ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5974-7553
    Yavuz Koktana
    Sakarya University (Türkiye)
    [ykoktan@sakarya.edu.tr]
    ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0834-2377    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078246

    AN ANALYSIS OF THE SHAPE-SHIFTING MOTIF IN TURKISH TALE NARRATIVES FROM MACEDONIA

    Abstract: Turkish folk literature in Macedonia has taken shape since the Ottoman era, emerging as a rich oral cultural heritage through the blending of narrative traditions brought from Anatolia with local elements. Tales, legends, folk stories, and anecdotes form the core components of this narrative tradition and stand out as significant elements reflecting the region’s cultural identity. These narratives exhibit parallels with the shared Turkish narrative heritage while also incorporating motifs specific to the region.

    This study focuses on the shape-shifting motif as it appears in Turkish folk narratives collected in Macedonia. The motif involves the transformation of a being or object into another form – such as a human turning into a stone, animal, tree, or bird; or the reverse, where animals and objects take on human form. These transformations may be permanent or temporary and are often symbolic.

    The study is based on Makedonya Türk Halk Edebiyatı Metinleri by Nimetullah Hafız. In this work, the shape-shifting motif was identified in twelve tale narratives. The findings indicate that shape-shifting typically serves a functional role within a reward-and-punishment framework, although it occasionally appears as a magical or supernatural phenomenon.Overall, the motif deepens the symbolic dimension of the narratives and facilitates the transmission of cultural values and collective beliefs. It also marks critical turning points in the stories, reflecting characters’ inner transformation or destiny. The study concludes that shape-shifting is a meaningful narrative element in Turkish folk literature in Macedonia, with both individual and cultural significance.

    Keywords: Macedonia Turks; Folk tale narratives; Shape-shifting; Metamorphosis; Motif analysis; Turkish Folk Literature.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Miftar Kurti
    Institute of History “Ali Hadri”, Prishtina (Kosovo)
    [miftarkurti@hotmail.com]
    ORCID: 0009-0005-0599-1944
    Nuri Bexheti
    University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina” (Kosovo)
    [nuri.bexheti@uni-pr.edu]
    ORCID: 0009-0004-1235-3521
    Ardita Hajdari
    Institute of History “Ali Hadri”, Prishtina (Kosovo)
    [ardita.hajdari@hotmail.com]
    ORCID: 0009-0002-1910-040X    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078166

    PRIMARY EDUCATION IN THE PARALLEL SYSTEM OF KOSOVO (1990–1999)

    Abstract: Kosovo became part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia within the Yugoslav federation at the end of the Second World War in 1945. A unified curriculum was introduced across Yugoslavia by the Federal Law on Elementary and Secondary Education in 1958. The 1963 Constitution further devolved educational powers to the republics, and the 1974 Constitution elevated Kosovo to an autonomous province with its own education-making bodies. From the mid-1970s, Kosovo’s provincial assembly regulated elementary and secondary schools under an eight-grade compulsory system, and the University of Pristina operated with growing autonomy.In March 1989, Republic of Serbia, within Yougoslavia revoked Kosovo’s autonomy and imposed Serbo-Croatian as the sole language of instruction, leading to the dismissal of Albanian-language teachers and the collapse of Albanian-medium classes. From 1990 to 1999, Kosovo Albanians established a parallel education network to preserve continuity and prevent the illiteracy intended by Serbian policies. This paper examines how primary education functioned under those extraordinary conditions: the parallel curricula and teaching materials used, the financing mechanisms, and the challenges encountered by students, teachers, parents, and school leaders during this period.

    Keywords: Kosovo; Albanian education; albanian language; parallel system; Yugoslavia.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Marine Aroshidze
    Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, Georgia
    [marina.aroshidze@bsu.edu.ge]
    ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8211-8421
     Nino Aroshidze
    Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, Georgia
    [nino.aroshidze@bsu.edu.ge]
    ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3358-7955    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078130

    MECHANISMS OF MANIPULATION IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY (LINGUISTIC ASPECT)

    Abstract: In today’s information society, mechanisms for manipulating the mental state and behavior of individuals and the broader public are being continuously refined. Among the diverse tools of manipulation, language ‒ the power of words ‒ plays a central role. This article examines the appealing and persuasive power of words through an analysis of Putin’s speeches delivered prior to the invasion of Ukraine. Linguistic markers, which we have termed “Putinisms,” are reinforced through their interaction with vivid, memorable visuals, all of which are embedded in the emotional packaging of a falsified interpretation of cultural heritage. The culmination of these manipulative actions is the construction of a new “post-Soviet” myth centered on the Siberianization of Russia.

    Keywords: linguistic markers; manipulative techniques; public consciousness; “Putinisms”; the birth of a new myth.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Ilina Marinova
    Department of Anthropology, New Bulgaria University, Sofia
    [ilieva.ilina@gmail.com]
    ORCID ID: 0009-0008-8397-6178    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078106

    INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE WITHOUT MEMORY: THE COTTON FACTORY OF VARNA BETWEEN PAST AND REDEVELOPMENT

    Abstract: This article examines why one of Varna’s largest pre-socialist buildings – the Cotton Factory – remains materially intact while its industrial past has largely disappeared from public memory. Drawing on site observation, archival fragments, interviews and online discussions, the study identifies a set of mechanisms through which memory erodes: fragmented sensory recollection, low occupational prestige, institutional opacity, shifting moral regimes after 1944 and 1989, urban discontinuity, spatial distancing and the emergence of neighbourhood myths. These forces converge, producing a durable silence around the factory’s social world. At the same time, certain residual attachments – belonging, aesthetic recognition and projected cultural aspirations – continue to anchor the building in collective imagination. The factory persists as a material form whose past cannot be fully narrated yet has not been culturally concluded.

    Keywords: industrial heritage; collective memory; institutional opacity; labour history; urban transformation; silence and forgetting; Varna (Bulgaria).

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Milena Angelova
    New Bulgarian University (Bulgaria)
    [mangelova74@yahoo.com]
    ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0208-1989    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078073

    “AN OBSTETRICIAN OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION”: THE PHYSICIAN, BIOPOWER, AND MUSLIM WOMEN IN COMMUNIST BULGARIA DURING THE 1960S

    Abstract: This article examines the case of Dr. Gani Ganev, a rural physician in the village of Bezvodno (Kardzhali region), whose activities in the 1960s were elevated into a propaganda model of the so-called “cultural revolution” directed at Bulgaria’s Muslim population. Drawing on Ganev’s unpublished “diary-novella” (1961–1965) preserved in the Kardzhali State Archive, the study analyses how biomedical authority, socialist modernisation, and national-communist biopolitics intersect in everyday practices of surveillance, disciplining, and assimilation. The diary reveals an unusually explicit articulation of what Foucault terms biopower: systematic monitoring of women’s bodies, aggressive interventions in reproductive practices, the creation of a female “sanitary intelligence” network, and the pathologisation of religious and cultural norms. The text also exposes how Soviet minority-management models ‒ especially the Soviet (Azerbaijani) “Geokchay experiment” ‒ were imported and adapted to the Bulgarian context. Dr. Ganev’s self-fashioning as a “doctor-hero” illustrates the fusion between medical, ideological, and administrative functions within the communist project of ideological homogenisation. By reading this diary both as a self-serving political performance and as a rare documentary trace of localised state power, the article offers a more nuanced account of the 1960s ‒ a period often overshadowed by later assimilation campaigns ‒ and highlights the centrality of women’s bodies in the national-communist reordering of muslim minority communities.

    Keywords: Muslim minority; Bulgaria; 1960s; Biopower; Women’s bodies and reproductive surveillance; Cultural revolution; Soviet minority-management models (Geokchay experiment); National-communism.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Kamelia Petkova
    Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
    [kamelia.petkova@gmail.com]
    ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3108-3887    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078031

    VOICES FROM THE GHETTO: STORIES OF LONELINESS, STIGMA, AND BELONGING IN SIX BULGARIAN CITIES

    Abstract: This paper examines experiences of loneliness, stigma, and belonging among residents of Roma ghettoized neighborhoods in six Bulgarian cities – Lom, Dobrich, Ruse, Asenovgrad, Kyustendil, and Straldzha. The analysis is based on qualitative research methods: 36 in-depth interviews (six in each city) conducted with different members of the Roma community – men and women of various age groups, informal Roma leaders, educational and health mediators. This approach provides in-depth insights into the social realities of ghettoized neighborhoods, moving beyond superficial public perceptions. The study traces how spatial isolation and institutional stigma shape the sense of the “ghetto” – simultaneously as a place of social exclusion and of collective identity. At the center of the analysis are personal narratives of silence and fear, but also of faith and hope. Theoretically, the article builds on the concepts of social stigma, moral boundaries, and territorial marginalization. Its aim is to demonstrate how “voices from below” articulate their lived experiences and to give visibility to a frequently neglected social world.

    Keywords: Roma; stigma; marginalization; belonging; ghetto; Bulgaria.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Tamila Davitadze
    Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, Georgia
    [tamila.davitadze@bsu.edu.ge]
    ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3486-1696
    Nana Mazmishvili
    Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, Georgia
    [nana.mazmishvili@bsu.edu.ge]
    ORCID ID: 0009-0000-3233-2702    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078007

    PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT OF DYSTOPIAN SOCIETY IN A TOTALITARIAN ENVIRONMENT

    Abstract: Dystopian novels represent a hyperbole of evil and violence through the psychological portrait of humanity. Authors, while developing the principle of the supremacy of free choice, literarily mask their message and, through the example of protagonist heroes, demonstrate various methods and means intended to suppress protest. They expose the state where violent means are used to attempt to “correct” people. Often, through antagonists, they also show the relationship and confrontation between the individual and the state. In such cases, a significant place is occupied by the artistic image of the leader, who is one of the leading figures in dystopian novels, such as Mustapha Mond in Huxley’s “Brave New World,” O’Brien in Orwell’s “1984,” Colonel Beatty in Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451,” and others. In dystopian genre books, authors frequently extrapolate existing problems into the future. This technique enables them to critique various aspects of contemporary society, whether it be totalitarian regimes, control over the individual, ecological catastrophes, or the degradation of social norms. Dystopian fiction compels readers to contemplate the possible consequences of our current actions and choices; to develop critical thinking, social responsibility, and the importance of fighting for a better future. In today’s chaotic world, where numerous states control their citizens through censorship, propaganda, intimidation, or indoctrination, dystopian literature and the study of such issues as dystopian politics, totalitarian government, and anti-intellectualism gain even greater significance and relevance, which we illuminate and highlight in comparative perspective through specific works, emphasizing the innovation that individual authors contributed to the development of the dystopian novel through their creativity.

    Keywords: Dystopian novel; totalitarian government; antagonists; protagonist; state.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Marija Martinović
    Philosophy and Slavic Studies at Sorbonne University (Paris)
    CEFRES, UMIFRE 13, UAR 3138 CNRS-MEAE
    [marija.sorbonne@yahoo.com],
    ORCID ID: 0009-0007-0389-7617    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18077962

    PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE SOCIAL BOND IN TITO’S YUGOSLAVIA: ŽIŽEK’S CRITIQUE OF IDEOLOGICAL UNITY AND THE PRINCIPLE OF AGAPÈ

    Abstract: This article written as a philosophical dissertation examines the concept of social bond as a central question of collective existence, using Tito’s socialism as its historical and ideological framework. It analyzes how Yugoslav socialism sought to produce unity through the political ideal of “Brotherhood and Unity,” aiming to establish an inclusive social bond as the foundation of its social order. However, as Slavoj Žižek demonstrates, this ideology of fraternity used a mechanism of exclusion and assimilation that erased singularity and transformed the idea of inclusion into conformity. The study explores Žižek’s philosophical critique of this socialist model of cohesion and his redefinition of the authentic social bond through the concept of agapè, a universal and unconditional love that respects differences rather than suppressing them. Through Žižek’s reading of Christian love and its political implications, the article offers the only possible foundation for a genuine social bond, one that unites individuals without abolishing their singularity. By contrasting the ideological illusion of unity in Tito’s socialism with the inclusive universality of agapè, this study seeks to clarify the philosophical necessity of an ethics of love as the true principle of political and human community.

    Keywords: social bond; socialist Yugoslavia; Slavoj Žižek; agape; inclusion.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • George Gotsiridze
    Iakob Gogebashvili Telavi State University (Georgia)
    Teaching-Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Humanities (Georgia)
    [giagotsiridze67@gmail.com],
    ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8151-2232    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18077931

    PAPERS OF THE STRUGGLE FOR THE STRENGTHENING THE NATIONAL IDENTITY. IN THE ARCHIVES OF GEORGIAN PUBLIC FIGURES

    Abstract: The article examines the struggle for the consolidation of national identity reflected in the archives of outstanding Georgian public figures of the 19th-20th centuries. The unfiltered and authentic narratives documented in personal letters and other archival material provide a clear picture of the challenges faced by a nation caught in the grips of an imperial regime and the daily efforts Georgian figures made to overcome these difficulties.

    The documentary material presents the efforts of scientists-historians, writers, and many Georgian representatives of the Russian military-bureaucratic elite to resolve various issues related to the preservation of national identity, namely: to restore the autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church, To increase the rights of the Georgian language in the educational system, to publish Georgian books, to preserve the items of the national spiritual and material culture, to increase the awareness of Georgia abroad, etc.

    The emigrant archives, which were handed over to Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, provide information about how Georgian emigrants abroad, escaping the Soviet regime, tried to establish a patriotic narrative different from the imperial one prevailing at that time. This cultural diplomacy, while still part of the empire, created the conditions for the rejection of the self-absorbed imperial heritage and the rise of nationalism based on a healthy, authentic heritage.The issue is studied based on the personal letters of Platon Yoseliani, Dimitri Bakradze, Zakaria Chichinadze, Theodore Jordania, Grigol Orbeliani, and the materials of the emigrant archive.

    Keywords: National Identity; Georgian Public Figures; Emigrant Archives; Imperial Regime; Authentic Heritage.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Claudia-Florentina Dobre
    “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History, Bucharest (Romania)
    [cfdobre@gmail.com],
    ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6778-3466    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18077879

    HEGEMONIC OR MARGINAL PERSPECTIVE!? THE MANY SHADES OF NOSTALGIA IN POST-COMMUNIST ROMANIA

    Abstract: In Romania, communism was declared, on December 18, 2006, an ‘illegitimate and criminal regime’. From this moment on, the main paradigm of remembering communism in the public space was anticommunism. However, ordinary people seem to remember communism in a more positive tune as shown by the various polls which measure a constantly increasing appreciation for the fallen regime. The explanations for this nostalgia are various: from ‘longing for a lost past’ to a form of counter-memory, as a critique of the present, and a fear for the future. Another explanation is the commodification of communism which became another marchandise to be consummed. A more subtle form of nostalgia was fuelled by the Romanian intelligentia in the 2000s, which can be explained by a change of generation, which did not feel represented either by the anticommunist discourse or the regret for a fallen regime measured by the polls. My article deals with the various forms of nostalgia recorded in Romania in the last 36 years since the fall of communism aiming at describing them, offering some explanations while trying to understand the trends and mechanisms of both ‘reflective’ and ‘restorative’ forms of nostalgia.

    Keywords: Anticommunism; Dominant Narratives; Intergenerational Memory; Pink Nostalgia.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.