Issues

Year: 2023 / Volume: 3 / Number: 2

Ledion Musaj, Mr., University of Tirana 

Anxhelo Dema, European University of Tirana 

DOI: http://doi.org/10.51331/A039

Page: 115-129

Full Text: https://www.balkanjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/JBS062023-Musa-Demaj.pdf

Abstract: This study aims to evaluate the psychological and social aspects related to prolonged illness management among individuals diagnosed with chronic illness in the Balkans. Data were collected using self-report measures, including the Patient Activation Measure, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R), Family Support Scale (FSS), Zarit Burden Interview, Patient-Provider Communication Scale, Chronic Illness Anticipated Stigma Scale (CIASS), and Perceived Discrimination Scale. The study involves 250 participants who completed surveys online and conducts multiple regression analysis to examine the interrelationships among the different factors. The results indicate moderate degrees of psychosocial suffering, with depression and anxiety being major factors. Effective coping strategies, familial support, and good communication with medical professionals are positively linked to improved overall results, while heavier burden placed on caregivers and perceived discrimination both exhibit negative correlations with health outcomes. The study emphasizes the need for specialized approaches that reflect a cultural sensibility related to chronic illness management struggles encountered by the population of the Balkans. 

Keywords:  chronic illness, family support, Balkan, anxiety, depression

Year: 2023 / Volume: 3 / Number: 2

Kristina Nikolic, Researcher, Royal Higher Institute for Defence

DOI: http://doi.org/10.51331/A037

Page: 59-90

Full Text: https://www.balkanjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/JBS062023-Kristina-Nikolic.pdf

Abstract: This article explains the evolution of Serbian political, economic, and security relations with the European Union, Russia, and China over the period of 2009-2023. The analysis of Serbia’s ambivalent relations with these three partners relies on the existing literature regarding the strategies small states use in their dealings with the great powers. An overview of various theoretical concepts has ensured the identification of the hedging model as appropriate for understanding Serbia’s approach toward external actors. In this regard, the study shows the inadequacy of labeling Serbian behavior as balancing, which is currently the dominant approach in the literature. The theoretical model of hedging as offered by the author Cheng-Chwee Kuik was chosen as suitable for analytically clarifying Serbia’s behavior in recent years as a complex combination of the hedging components of economic pragmatism, binding engagement, limited bandwagoning, dominance denial, and indirect balancing. Such a theoretical interpretation of Serbian policy is important, as the country does not yet have a written form of its foreign policy strategy, nor is a more detailed doctrinal basis of this model found in the domestic literature. In practical terms, this study will help better understand how Serbia has found itself in the uncomfortable position of choosing between the West and the East due to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

Keywords: Serbia, hedging, European Union, Russia, China

Year: 2023 / Volume: 3 / Number: 2

Fotini Zarogianni, PhD student, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

DOI: http://doi.org/10.51331/A038

Page: 91-113

Full Text: https://www.balkanjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/JBS-3_2Sayi-Fotini-1.pdf

Abstract: This paper deals with the question of the driving forces of the religious, ecclesiastic, and political antagonism between Greece and Bulgaria in the context of the Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin, in combination with the national awakening and ethnic rivalries of the period. As a result, the study investigates the Greek-Bulgarian Church Dispute, which involved the quest for an autonomous Bulgarian Church, the schism from the Patriarchate, and the antagonism for religious loyalties connected to ethnic identities after the pre-national era and the emergence of nationalism. Consequently, the paper examines the political and nationalistic aspects of Greek-Bulgarian antagonism, with a special focus on the politico-territorial disputes resulting from the San Stefano and Berlin Treaties. Lastly, the paper showcases the connection this antagonism had to the Macedonian Question regarding the cause of the never-ending turmoil in the Balkans, the powder keg of Europe.

Keywords: nationalism, Bulgarian Exarchate, church dispute, Treaty of San Stefano, Macedonian Question

Year: 2023 / Volume: 3 / Number: 2

Stephen A. Spathas, Independent Researcher

DOI: http://doi.org/10.51331/A036

Page: 45-58

Full Text: https://www.balkanjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/JBS-3_2Sayi-stephen.pdf

The pause in scientific research in the prehistory of Corfu and adjacent areas in Epirus between the years 1969-1990 prompted exploratory field research to locate and record open-air Paleolithic sites threatened by destruction due to residential, commercial, and industrial development. Of the sites discovered and put on record, this paper focuses on Agia (or Ayia), a hitherto unknown Middle Paleolithic site, and examines its position as a probable “kill and butchering” site in the Kokkytos river area. The typological analysis of the lithic assemblage shows an advanced Middle Paleolithic industry of Mousterian and, predominantly, Levalloiso-Mousterian types of Levalloisian tradition with elements of Eastern Mousterian affinities. The paper discusses the diffusion of technology in the coastal areas of Epirus and the island of Corfu and notes the gradual decrease of pure Mousterian technology in favor of Levalloiso-Mousterian as one moves westwards. The paper points to specific candidate sites in the vicinity of Agia and recommends further research.

Keywords: red beds, Epirus, Middle Paleolithic, flints, Levalloiso-Mousterian