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What Are the Countries in the Balkans

 
Mary Smith
By Mary Smith. March 29, 2017
What Are the Countries in the Balkans

The Balkans are a geographical and cultural area located in Europe forming a peninsula between Italy and Turkey. The term "Balkans" comes from Turkish and means "Wooded Mountain". Originally, it refers to the mountain range that crosses Bulgaria. The geographical area of the Balkans is bounded on the north by the Danube and Save rivers, on the east by the Black Sea and on the south and west by the Mediterranean Sea. There is no real consensus on the exact number of countries that are part of the Balkans, and their list may vary according to the criteria chosen to define this geographical area, but up to 12 countries are included, in one way or another. In this article we will tell you a little more about this region of Europe, so that you know which are the countries in the Balkans.

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Countries fully included in the Balkans

Albania

Capital: Tirana. Population: 2.7 million inhabitants. Surface area: 28 748 km2

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Capital city: Sarajevo. Population: 3.8 million inhabitants. Area: 51,197 km2

Bulgaria

Capital: Sofia. Population: 7.2 million inhabitants. Area: 110,944 km2

Greece

Capital: Athens. Population: 10.8 million inhabitants. Area: 131,957 km2

Kosovo (partially acknowledged by the international community)

Capital: Pristina. Population: 1.8 million inhabitants. Area: 10,908 km2

Macedonia

Capital: Skopje. Population: 2 million. Area: 25,713 km2

Montenegro

Capital: Podgorica. Population: 661 8071 inhabitants. Area: 13 812 km2

What Are the Countries in the Balkans - Countries fully included in the Balkans

Countries partly included in the Balkans

Serbia

Central Serbia, located to the south of the Danube River, accounts for 60% of the total territory of the country.

Capital: Belgrade. Population: 7.1 million inhabitants. Surface area: 77 474 km²

Croatia

The half of Croatia is part of the Balkans, including the regions of Dalmatia, Istria and the territories to the south of the Sava

Capital: Zagreb. Population: 4.2 million inhabitants. Surface area: 56 5941 km2

Slovenia

The south of the country, including 27% of the territory

Capital: Ljubljana. Population: 2 million. Area: 20,273 km2

Romania

Only 6% of Romania belongs to the Balkans, the region called Dobrudja

Capital: Bucharest. Population: 19.9 million. Area: 238 391 km2

European Turkey

Though mostly located in Asia, Eastern Thrace, European part of Turkey, is geographically located in the Balkans.

Capital city: Ankara. Population: 79.4 million inhabitants. Area: 783,562 km2

What Are the Countries in the Balkans - Countries partly included in the Balkans

Tense cohabitation

The Balkans, although geographically relatively small, is a region in which a mosaic of peoples and cultures coexists, a cohabitation that is sometimes tense. The area experienced a serious conflict in the 1990s, the Yugoslavian War, which after the break-up of this former federation into independent states triggered a series of political, ethnic and religious conflicts that will kill more than 300,000 people. The countries concerned are Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo.

Today, although the conflicts are over, some tensions persist locally, although cohabitation is now peaceful.

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