Relations between the many ethnic groups in the Balkan region of Europe have been unstable for nearly one thousand years. In 1054 A.D. when the Christian Church split in the Great Schism it was divided into two halves: the western Roman Catholic Church, with its capital city of Rome, and the Eastern Orthodox Church, with its headquarters in Constantinople. This eastern half of Christianity, known as the Byzantine Empire, became a melting pot of jealous, warring, and nationalistic ethnicities. Over the course of the eleventh up to the twentieth century, the Balkan region has been a part…
