Transbalkan Islamic Federation

At some point I set about to define the borders of an Islamic state in the Balkans, to which I gave the name "Transbalkan Islamic Federation." Such a federation would probably comprise Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sanjak, Kosova, Albania, and the Albanian part of FYROM. Here are some sample maps:



You might notice that, while I was at it, I decided to create a Vlach principality in Epirus, along the lines of the one promised to Alcibiades Diamantis by the Axis powers (and what a great name that is, for a comic-book supervillain! Imagine, Alcibiades Diamantis of the Vlach Principality - truth really is stranger than fiction). The Vlachs are Aroumanian - that is, they speak a Romance dialect similar to Romanian. They claim to be descended from Trajan's soldiers, who somehow became lost and never made it back to Rome.

Here is a close-up of the territories specifically involved:

Bright day
Congratulations! You just created another Balkan war and much larger than last one. Thought this of course ATL, I doubt it there are simply too many factors aganist- moslems dislike each other too. States would not accept diminishing of territory. States outside the immediate area would also be concerned about large moslem nation they do not want. Just my two dinarii.
May all your days be bright.

Even if teh Aroumanian got an own state, it would never be that large!
Oh,a dnd the albanians in albania itself are pretty much evenly split bewteen sunnite muslims and orthodox christians, so membership in an islamic fedreation could be... a problem.

Susano said:

Even if teh Aroumanian got an own state, it would never be that large!
Oh,a dnd the albanians in albania itself are pretty much evenly split bewteen sunnite muslims and orthodox christians, so membership in an islamic fedreation could be... a problem.

Click to expand...

Well, it was my understanding that such a state was created during WWII by the fascists, "the Principality of the Pindus," at the behest of the aforementioned Vlakh supervillain, Alcibiades Diamantis.

Actually, I just like saying Alcibiades Diamantis.

Granted, there isn't much information about the Principality of the Pindus available to me, so perhaps it never happened. But Alcibiades Diamantis did in fact exist.

As for Albania being evenly split between Sunni Muslims and Orthodox Xians... well, that's news to me! I decided to check this out on the CIA World Factbook...

Muslim 70%
Albanian Orthodox 20%
Roman Catholic 10%

Hmm. I wonder what happens if you factor in the Muslim areas of Kosova and FYROM? I don't know how many of those Albanians are Christian, but I'm guessing not very much.

Anyway, I agree that this federation is unlikely, even if such a federation was proposed post WWI, IIRC. I just wanted to show off my Photoshop handiwork.

Then I admit that my information was incorect. Sorry. Still those 30% (well, somewhat elss with the Kosovo being integrated into albania) Christians would make problems!

And even if such a state, Pintus, was created, I dont think it could hold long, surrounded by greece an with greek majoirty in population. Besides, it seems only possible if the axis wins WW2, and thatve have.... entriely other consequences, too.

Susano said:

And even if such a state, Pintus, was created, I dont think it could hold long, surrounded by greece an with greek majoirty in population. Besides, it seems only possible if the axis wins WW2, and thatve have.... entriely other consequences, too.

Click to expand...

That's true. The Vlachs are, at best, an extremely tiny minority, most of whom consider themselves fervent Hellenic nationalists. At the time, however, there was probably some member of the Italian royal family who was peaved about not having his own private fiefdom; consequently Mussolini had this phony principality established (under the pretenses of giving the Vlachs an autonomous homeland).

I'm inclined to agree that the Vlach state is too big...there aren't that many Vlachs to start with, and they're scattered around. I think they mostly live in the mountains...what're some contiguous mountainous regions with large Vlach populations?

The Kosovo Albanians are mostly Muslim, but there are a lot of Catholics too. Some KLA commanders rejected aid from Islamic "foreign legions" out of concern for the well-being of the Catholics, plus some pro-intervention people commented that a fundamentalist regime isn't going to rise out of the "secularized Muslim AND CATHOLIC" popluation of Kosovo.

"States would not accept diminishing of territory"

They never do. However, WI NATO goes to war against Serbia again? The talking heads are kvetching about the latest Serbian elections and the alleged "anti-democratic" nature of the winners?

I've never head of Alcibiades Diamantis. Who's he? He sounds like an enemy-country minority-group nationalist that the Axis adopted (a la the Soviet Union).

Leo Caesius said:

Well, it was my understanding that such a state was created during WWII by the fascists, "the Principality of the Pindus," at the behest of the aforementioned Vlakh supervillain, Alcibiades Diamantis.

Actually, I just like saying Alcibiades Diamantis.

Granted, there isn't much information about the Principality of the Pindus available to me, so perhaps it never happened. But Alcibiades Diamantis did in fact exist.

Click to expand...

Some sites from a simple Google search :-
http://flagspot.net/flags/gr_it.html
http://www.mfa.gov.tr/grupa/ak/05.htm
http://flagspot.net/flags/gr-vlakh.html
https://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2003-September/002219.html

I haven't vetted any of them but the search criteria indicates that you ought to find the information you seek within

Grey Wolf

Alcibiades Diamanti

Well, we learn from the links that Grey Wolf provided that:

Alcibiades Diamanti (aka Alkibiadi Diamandi due to the vicissitudes of romanized Greek orthography), the Prince of Pindo, was born in Samarina, and was the head of the 'Roman Legion' - an army of Vlach fascists (curiouser and curiouser...).

The Fascist government appointed Victor Emmanuel as Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania; in some maps of this period, NW Greece is marked off and labeled "attached to Albania." As a sop to its ally Rumania, Italy had declared an autonomous Principality of the Pindus in this region, with Diamanti at its head as prince. This principality consisted of Epirus, Macedonia, and the entirety of Thessaly - the regions in which the Vlach populations are most strongly concentrated, although one can find Vlachs virtually everywhere in Greece and the Balkans. The area with the greatest concentration of Vlachs, often called the "Vlach capital," is named Aminciu (Metsovon) in the Pindus range of mountains.

Most Greeks don't consider Vlachs a separate ethnic entity, although they are bound by treaty to permit them education in their own language. This view is also held by many Vlachs.

Alcibiades Diamanti, part deux

I've found a picture of good old Prince Al -


Actually, it is an image of my grandfather, who, like Al, spoke a Romance dialect and had a Greek last name. And, boy, if he had a nickel for every time someone mistook him for a Vlach supervillain...

Leo,

Thanks for telling about the Pindus state. I'm going to incorporate it into my "The East Has Fallen" Axis victory scenario.

Oh, and by the way, if you include ALL of Bosnia in this super-state, you're going to get a bunch of PO'd Serbs and Croats who don't wish to be under Islamic rule.

Also, thanks for coming up with the general scenario...if you don't mind, I want to incorporate the idea of a "Trans-Balkan Muslim state" into one of my "Libertarian SF" stories.

Matt Quinn said:

Oh, and by the way, if you include ALL of Bosnia in this super-state, you're going to get a bunch of PO'd Serbs and Croats who don't wish to be under Islamic rule.

Also, thanks for coming up with the general scenario...if you don't mind, I want to incorporate the idea of a "Trans-Balkan Muslim state" into one of my "Libertarian SF" stories.

Click to expand...

Not at all, actually I'm quite flattered. Please feel free to do whatever you want with the scenario.

Once again Someone posts a map or picture that my Computor doesn't see

Susano said:

Even if teh Aroumanian got an own state, it would never be that large!
Oh,a dnd the albanians in albania itself are pretty much evenly split bewteen sunnite muslims and orthodox christians, so membership in an islamic fedreation could be... a problem.

Click to expand...

The Albanians are nowhere near an even split. They are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim - 70%, 20% Orthodox, and 10% Catholic. Kossovo is almost entirely Muslim. Since the Christians are mostly in the South, the territories in the map will be overwhelmingly Muslim, althugh that is NOT true of Bosnia, which would be about 45% Muslim, 35% Serb, and 25% Croatian.

Yes. I already admitted this. Thanks for correcting me again