It is very clear and simple in Europe, the Central- and Eastern-European countries which aren't Germany, Austria, Switzerland, resist the arrival of Muslim refugees and migrants from the Middle-east and Northern-Africa. It seems they are allergic to 'Muslim' migrants, because they don't want the existance of Islam on their territory, they don't want a Muslim minority in their countries, because they want to preserve their christian nature. You don't hear that in the West, but I heard Hungarian, Slovakian and Polish leaders say that, and I saw Hungary, Macedonia and Slovenia building fences on their borders, which are defecto walls which close of their countries for unwanted foreigners (aliens).
The Balkan was always a hotbed of raw national emotions, bloodshed and wars between various peoples and religions. The Serbs, Macedonians, and
Bulgarians see the Muslim refugees as the new Ottoman Turks. They were occupied by the Ottoman Turks. From a Nortbertine brother I heard that there were difficulties in Macedonia with Muslim refugees who damaged Christian property. He said that it become a problem there that the Muslim refugees/migrants, joint forces with the Albanian (Kosovar) Muslim minority which grew in numbers due to the Syrian, Iraqi and other muslims that arrived. Not all refugees are violent aggressive thugs, but there are amongst them who cause problems for other refugees in refugee camps and for locals of the new country they arrive in.
These groups of local Bulgarian vigilantes are probably Bulgarian nationalists from far right parties or just concerned civilians who formed a militia. There is a fear all over Europe for these refugees, and the belief that they will make the Muslim minorities larger.
People in
the Balkan region are cruel Jaga, it is in their nature. Because the region is plagued by ethnic, religious and clan (tribal) conficts for hunderds of years. Vendetta's still hurt families who are victims of honour killings, and revenge will have take place in the Vendetta culture. Hatred between Bulgarians and Turks, Bulgarians against Macedonians, Croats and Serbs, Bosnians and Serbs, Kosovar Albanians and Serbs, Hungarians and Romanians and Hungarians and Slovaks have deep historical layers. And Serbs, Croats, Macedonians, Bulgarians and Greeks all hate the Turks, their old Ottoman empire. The Bosnians and Albanians do not hate the Turks, because they are Sunni-Muslims too. The term “
Balkans” is freighted with negative connotations associated with
the region’s history of ethnic divisiveness and political upheaval.
The Balkans are usually characterized as comprising
Albania,
Bosnia and
Herzegovina,
Bulgaria,
Croatia,
Kosovo,
Macedonia,
Montenegro,
Romania,
Serbia, and
Slovenia—with all or part of each of those countries located within the peninsula.
The word
Balkan is
Turkish and means “
mountain,” and the peninsula is certainly dominated by this type of landform, especially in the west.
The Balkan Mountains lie
east-west across Bulgaria, the
Rhodope Mountains extend along
the Greek-Bulgarian border, and
the Dinaric range extends down
the Adriatic coast to
Albania. By some definitions the region’s northern boundary extends to
the Julian Alps and
the Carpathians. Among these ranges extensive areas of good arable land are relatively scarce, though the valleys of
the Danube,
Sava, and
Vardar rivers,
eastern Bulgaria, parts of
the Aegean Sea coast, and especially
the Danubian Plain are exceptions. The mountains have a significant impact on the climate of the peninsula. The northern and central parts of the Balkans have a central European climate, characterized by cold winters, warm summers, and well-distributed rainfall. The southern and coastal areas, however, have a Mediterranean type of climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, relatively rainy winters.
Ethnic diversity is one of the region’s most characteristic social and political features.
The most numerous of the groups is the South Slavs, who form the majority of the population in
Bulgaria,
Serbia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Croatia,
Slovenia,
Macedonia, and
Montenegro. The Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Slovenes speak their own Slavic languages, while the Slavs of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro all speak dialects of Serbo-Croatian.
Some features of
Balkan history have remained consistent. The fluidity of ethnic groups, the inability of the peoples of the region to agree and cooperate among themselves, a tendency on the part of political authority to devolve to local levels as soon as central power is weakened, the influence of foreign powers, and the difficulty of introducing into the area concepts that have evolved in a different political and social context.
Armenians fleeing
the appalling massacres in the Ottoman empire of the 1890s found safety in
Bulgaria.
Bulgaria does not recognize the existence of a separate Macedonian language or nation, claiming that Macedonian is simply a dialect of
Bulgarian and that the Macedonians are really Bulgarians. In addition, successive Bulgarian governments have refused to recognize the existence of a Macedonian minority in
Bulgaria and have attempted to suppress any expression of a Macedonian national identity among its citizens.
There are an estimated 32,564 refugee and migrant arrivals in
Bulgaria of whom about 8,501 are from Syria (Source: CIA factbook). Sunni Muslims are the second-largest community in
Bulgaria and constitute 10 per cent of the religious makeup, although a majority of them do not pray and find the use of Islamic veils in schools unacceptable. Most of Bulgaria's Muslims are ethnic Turks. 588,318 Turks live in
Bulgaria, that is 8.8 % of the Bulgarian population. The Bulgarian population is 7,364,570 people, of whom 5,664,624 are Bulgarian mostly Orthodox christians.
www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/01/2012122102331935532.html