We No Longer Know Who We Are: The Forgotten Minorities of the Balkans

The Balkans has the most ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities in the whole of Europe. Most of these ethnic groups are practically unknown. Cyrill Stieger has visited them.

They have their own, often regionally-anchored identity, their language is usually spoken, but not written, and assimilation accelerates out-migration and thus the neglect of traditional ways of life. Be it the Torbeši in south-west Macedonia, the Pomaks in Northern Greece who converted to Islam or the Christian Aromanians - Cyrill Stieger, longtime correspondent at the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, is an outstanding expert on the Balkans’ numerous minorities. He has spoken to descendants of the Vlachs in Istria, has met representatives of the Goranci along the Albanian-Macedonian border, and on his travels, has discovered a fascinating but endangered world.