Сравнително изследване на взаимоотношенията между християнските и мюсюлманските общности в Централна Азия и на Балканите
A Comparative Analysis of the Relations between Muslim and Christian Communities in Central Asia and the Balkans

Summary/Abstract: Since the end of the Cold War, the Balkans and Central Asia have been subject to rapid changes. The author aims at defining the common features of these changes which suggest the existence of identical models of transition in both regions. In addition, she aims at describing the regional characteristics of each model. This will help scholars and policy makers assess the possibilities of future interaction between the two regions in the context of global politics. Because both regions are multiethnic and multiconfessional, the author has chosen to study them, above all, in the context of the conflict of interests between Russia and Turkey. The fact that the Balkans and the Central Asian republics were located in the periphery of the two empires accounts, to a large degree, for the lack of solid democratic traditions in these regions. Having adopted a series of elements of the imperial type of authoritarian government, they keep reproducing this model under the new conditions. As for the ethnic minorities in the Balkans and Central Asia, they are mostly the result of the foreign imperial rule which forcibly changed the ethno-religious structure of each region and made most ethno-religious communities try to preserve their identity by turning into closed minorities. In the wide spectrum of denominations and sects in both regions, East Orthodox Christianity and Sunnism display the greatest similarities as far as their cognitive behavior is concerned. This fact accounts for their being relatively tolerant of each other; it has also stimulated the emergence of mixed ethno-religious communities in both regions. Communism was another factor that exerted powerful influence on the ethnic and religious processes in the Balkans and Central Asia. It affected both the sense of national identity and the religious consciousness of their populations. Marginalized in the communist days, Islam is now seeking a political and socio-cultural rehabilitation. It has emerged as a dominant factor in the societies in transition. The political, economic and spiritual crisis in these societies could make Islam more radical in the future. Whenever the administration cannot keep crime under control, there always is a danger of the emergence of Muslim fundamentalism, as was the case in Kosovo. Each region, however, has its specifics because they display a different degree of integration between the Muslim and the Christian communities. Since the Soviet block fell apart, the two regions have been following divergent paths: while most Balkan societies chose a pro-EU and pro-NATO orientation, the Central Asian republics chose Turkey to act as a mediator between them and the United States.

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