Semantic approaches of ethnic issues in the Balkans

Semantic approaches of ethnic issues in the Balkans: the differentiation of the religious term “muslim” to the ethnic term “Muslim” within the limits of the pro-Titoic Yugoslavia and the after-civil war Yugoslavia. One of the principal characteristics of the course of the ethnic “muslim” definition of the Western Balkans during the end of the 19th century was the issue of the naming of the Muslim people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The multinational Yugoslavia agonized over this issue during the second half of the 20th century and until the end of the political life of this country. The structure of the country gradually converted the term “muslims of Bosnia” into “Muslims” with ethnic-racial content and later -when independent Bosnia and Herzegovina was created in 1993- this term turned into Bosniac (Bošnjak). The differentiations of the content of the above ethnic terms, the political and religious interventions and influences, are some of the aspects discussed in the present paper