BALKANS

BALKANS. The word is Turkish in origin, signifying “thick woods,” and particularly the great peninsula of southeastern Europe, which in biblical and Roman times embraced the ancient provinces of Illyria, Dacia, Thrace (Skudra), Macedonia (q.v.), and Achaia (Athens and the Peloponnesus). Invaded by the Slavs in the late 6th c. A.D., this territory eventually became home to the modern Orthodox churches of Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and Albania (qq.v.). Outside the territories of the former Soviet Union, it is the largest concentration of Orthodox Christians in the world. Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire (q.v.) from the late 14th c. to the waning years of the 19th c.-Bulgaria being the last to gain independence in 1879-the entire area bears the marks of this long occupation. Territorial and concomitant ecclesiastical disputes resulting from the breakup of the Turkish Empire, for example the “Bulgarian Schism” (1870–1945) and the Balkan Wars of 1909 to 1912, have troubled the Orthodox communities from the end of the last century to the present.