2025

Expulsion of the ‘Turk’: Contextualising Islamophobia in the Balkans, the Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

An article by Anja Zalta published in Intellectual Discourse (vol. 33, special issue, 2025).

The author analyses the rise of Islamophobia in the Balkans, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She shows how political discourse and religious mythologies fed the nationalisms behind the wars of the 1990s, and traces the construction of Otherness through a Eurocentric orientalism, from the ‘expulsion of the Turk’ to contemporary fears of neo-Ottomanism. Her aim is to identify paths towards a peaceful and creative coexistence.

Article d’Anja Zalta paru dans la revue Intellectual Discourse (vol. 33, numéro spécial, 2025).

L’auteure analyse la montée de l’islamophobie dans les Balkans, en particulier en Bosnie-Herzégovine. Elle montre comment les discours politiques et les mythologies religieuses ont nourri les nationalismes à l’origine de la guerre des années 1990, et retrace la construction de l’altérité à travers un orientalisme eurocentré, de « l’expulsion du Turc » aux craintes contemporaines du néo-ottomanisme. L’objectif est de dégager des voies pour une coexistence pacifique et créative.

مقالة بقلم أنيا زالتا نُشرت في مجلة Intellectual Discourse (المجلد 33، عدد خاص، 2025).

تحلّل المؤلفة صعود الإسلاموفوبيا في البلقان، ولا سيما في البوسنة والهرسك. وتبيّن كيف غذّت الخطابات السياسية والأساطير الدينية النزعات القومية التي قادت إلى حروب التسعينيات، وتتتبّع بناء صورة «الآخر» عبر استشراق أوروبي المركز، من «طرد التركي» إلى المخاوف المعاصرة من العثمانية الجديدة. وهدفها استكشاف سبل للتعايش السلمي والخلّاق.

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