Brotherhood and unity goes multiculturalism: Legacy as a leading path toward implementations of new European multiculturalism

Abstract

Wars of the 1990s condemned the whole Balkans as notoriously interethnic and interreligious conflict area. Many authors consider these conflicts as unsolvable because of region’s complex historical and cultural background: They perceive violent Balkan state of mind as something that naturally fits to the area and find causes of and arguments for the conflicts in its cultural mixed environment. Understanding former multicultural attempts is crucial for adopting a new type of multiculturalism in postwar ex-Yugoslav countries, which is conceived abroad (in Europe and in International Community) and simply implemented there by foreign institutions. Analyzing multicultural experiences from the Balkan history in their complexity, with all of their positive and negative aspects, can help new contemporary multicultural ideologies and enterprises to become more efficient in realization in the same old environments.