Balkan Memes
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About
Balkan Memes are a series of image macros, exploitable images, captioned pictures and other media about countries and people in the Balkan Peninsula. The memes are usually made by online users from the Balkans with the purpose of mocking, insulting, or bantering about other Balkan countries.
History
The Balkans are a region in southeastern Europe named for the Balkan Mountains stretching from Bulgaria to Slovenia. Countries in the Balkans include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia), Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. Greece and Turkey are sometimes considered part of the region.
One of the most recent conflicts in the Balkans are the Yugoslav Wars from the 1990s and early 2000s. The impact of genocide, ethnic cleansing, destruction, and war crimes during these conflicts lingers on in the region.
Spread
Leftover sentiments from wars and other tensions in the Balkans led to hyper-nationalistic videos and memes that often feature broken English. The earliest found Balkan-style meme was found on a June 14th, 2005 blog post[1] from user albania-city on the French website Skyrock (shown below, left). Tensions from conflicts between other countries spilled onto YouTube as well, with a video[2] promoting Macedonia and insulting Greece being posted on January 22, 2007. In fourteen years, it received over 80,000 views (shown below, right).
Some early Balkan memes are loosely associated with the Balkan rap/hip-hop scene. An October 3rd, 2008 article[3] noted the popularity of late rapper Tupac Shakur in Eastern Europe and in 2010, the Remove Kebab meme came about, mentioning that "Tupac [is] Alive In Serbia." A video related to Tupac and Serbia was uploaded[4][5] as early as July 3rd, 2012 before being deleted. A reupload has gained[6] over 100,000 views on YouTube (shown below).
Balkan memes surged in popularity in the late 2010s as users mocked and imitated the hyper-nationalistic of certain Balkan memes. A related subreddit, r/BalkanPeopleInternet, was banned[7] in June 2020 for violating[8] Reddit's rules against promoting hate.
Stereotypes
Croatian Fascists
Croatia is usually portrayed as a fascist or national socialist state due to the country's history and its severe laws. Memes about Croatia also make fun of its nationalists who do not consider Croatia part of the Balkans (examples shown below).[9]
Slovenian Femboys
Memes about Slovenia often portray Slovenian men as femboys or hardcore LGBT members, due to it being the first Eastern European country that allowed same-sex marriages (examples shown below).[10]
Turkroach
Turkish posters gained on 4chan the identity of "Turkroaches" due to a copypasta comparing Turks to cockroaches (shown below, left).[11] This caused the country being often portrayed in memes as inhabited by cockroaches or humanoid cockroaches (shown below, right).
Serbian Irredentism
Serbian memes often mock the nationalists' desire of expanding the borders and conquering neighboring countries. These usually reference Serbia's claim to Kosovo,[12] as well as the Serbia Stronk / Remove Kebab memes (example shown below).
Monkeydonia
Macedonians are often potrayed as monkeys and apes in memes. The country's national identity is also mocked, by saying that its history, language and ancestry is stolen from its surrounding nations (examples shown below).
Bulgarian Mongols
In a very similar way to how Finnish people are portrayed in the Finngolia meme, Bulgarians are also depicted as Mongolians or of Asiatic ethnicity, due to the country being a Mongol vassal in its past history (examples shown below).[13]
Monteniggas
Montenegrins are known for joking about their country's name sounding like a racial slur towards black people (examples shown below).[14]
Gayreeks
"Gayreece" or "Gayreek" are common online insults towards Greek users or Greece. While there are some similar ones for other Balkan countries (i.e. "Turgay", "Bulgayria", "Analbania" etc…), it stuck as a signature for Greece in particular. It is rumored that the insult was made by Turkish and Albanian nationalists (examples shown below).[15]
Albania
Albanians are often known online for being extremely nationalistic and displaying exaggerate examples of bravado and machismo (examples shown below).
Bosnia
Bosnians and Bosnia itself are portrayed as a possibly unreal and bizarre Muslim country, as well as its coastline being part of Croatia's borders (examples shown below).
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Skyrock – albania-city
[2] YouTube – Makedonec111
[3] Blackpast – TUPAC IN SARAJEVO: THE RISE OF REBELLION RAP IN EASTERN EUROPE
[4] YouTube – tupac Serbia
[5] YouTube – Dalton Krantis
[6] YouTube – BepisBoys TheBackwash
[8] Reddit – r/BalkanPeopleInternet
[9] Quora – Do Croatia and Slovenia really belong to the Balkans?
[10] glaad – Slovenia becomes the first eastern European country to allow same-sex marriage
[11] /int/ – Thread # 32507046
[12] Wikipedia – Kosovo is Serbia
[13] Wikipedia – Mongol invasion of Bulgaria and Serbia.
[14] Southend News Network – MONTENEGRO REFUSED EU MEMBERSHIP UNTIL COUNTRY CHOOSES A LESS RACIST NAME
[15] Quora – What is it with some Turkish and Albanian nationalists calling Greeks "Gayreeks" as an insult?
" >Thinks that only Serbian family names finish with "-ić." >fancies himself the super-Slav, massacres other Slavs because of some retarded reasons >Calls all Bulgarians "Turks", although Bulgarian blood being more European than Serbian. >Thinks that fighting goatfuckers with AK's is warfare.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/566/107/e61.png "Serbitches in nutshell (anti-Ustashe edition)")
![Adelphopoiesis Article Talk History A Language This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. Learn more Watch Such ceremonies can be found in the history of the Catholic Church until the 14th century[¹] and in the Eastern Orthodox Church until the early 20th century.[2][3][4] Documented in Byzantine manuscripts from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries, prayers established participants as 'spiritual brothers' (pneumatikoi adelphoi) and contained references to sainted pairs, including most notably Saints Sergius and Bacchus as well as Saints Cosmas and Damian, who were famous for their friendship."[5] Adelphopoiesis, or adelphopoiia (from the Greek ádeλportoinois/ádeλyoñolía, derived from ádeλpós, adelphos, lit. 'brother', and nolέw, poieō, lit. 'I make', literally 'brother-making') is a ceremony practiced historically in Orthodox-Christian tradition to unite together two people of the same sex (normally men) in a church-recognized relationship analogous to siblinghood. [note 1] In the late twentieth century, the Christian tradition gained notoriety as the focus of controversy involving advocates and opponents of secular and religious legalization of same-sex relationships.[6] Contents Edit : More The Christian martyrs Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus, noted for their friendship in Christ, were cited in church adelphopoiesis ceremonies.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/515/468/84c.jpg "I feel like this belongs here")
Top Comments
Knightshade
Jun 17, 2020 at 06:01PM EDT
A Concerned Rifleman
Sep 20, 2020 at 07:55PM EDT