Balkan History

The way Walter Russell Mead approaches the Balkan turmoil (“Peacemakers No Match for Ancient Balkan Hatred,” Opinion, Aug. 16) reminded me of that famous Sam Cooke song “Don’t Know Much About History”--it is incomplete, simplistic and biased. The writer, instead of excusing the Serbian aggression and oppression via Turk-bashing, should have used the occasion to throw some light upon the real human suffering as experienced by the Bosnian Muslims and Croats. That’s the “decent” thing to do.

He almost totally blames today’s problems in Bosnia on the Kosovo war that Turks won against the Serbians in 1389. He starts the Balkan history of problems on that year, on that event, and ignores the complex history of the region. What does Mead think history is? A union time clock that you can start and stop whenever you punch in a card? How can one ignore the many facets of ethnicity, religious feuds, power struggles by warlords and empires that led up to 1389 and continue into the 21st Century in the Balkans?

ERGUN KIRLIKOVALI

Western Regional Director

Federation of Turkish-American Assns.

Rancho Santa Margarita