ANCIENT BASSANIA - OLD BOSNIA

Stećak is monumental tombstone of medevial Bosnia, sometimes called kam, marble, bilig... An estimated 66,00 are found within the borders Bosnia and Herzegovina, usually grouped in the cemeteries. The most famous is Radimlja, located in Stolac. Appearing in the 7th century, the Stećci reached their peak in the late 14-th to 15th centuries. Spiral, arcades, rosettes, vine leaves and grapes, suns and crescent moons, deer, dancing the kolo, hunting and most famously the image of the man with his right hand raised, are among the decorative motifs that appear on Stećci. The Stećci have been nominated to the UNESCO World Heritage List as Joint Cultural Heritage by the four countries in the 2009.

Bosnian historian prof.dr.Enver Imamović, believes than the modern-day Bosniaks do not continue the lineage of any Slavic tribe, but rather of an ancient Illyrian tribe called Posen. He gives a serious reference to support his statement and adduces the ancient Greek historian Appain of Alexandria (c. 95 – 165 C.E) who mentions an Illyrian tribe named Posen as living on the territories of modern-day Bosnia and Hercegovina. Mr.Imamović corroborates that the term Posen is nothing else but a corrupted form of the Illyrian term Bosen. Thus, mr. Imamović concludes that when talking about modern-day Bosniaks and the ancient Illyrian Posens we are talking about „one and the same people with the same name and a historic continuity of 2,000 years“.
To support his theory of the Illyrian ancestry of the Bosniaks, Imamović mentions that the very name Bosnia is pre-Slavic and that it was existent long before the Serb and Croat tribes moved to the Balkan. Thus, he mentions that „already in the Roman time Bosnia was called approximately Bassania“.



Bosniaks are Illyrians


Prof. dr. Enver Imamović in his book “Historija bosanske vojske” ("The history of the Bosnian army") describes at length the Bosnian Illyrians, their military and social system. For this text the most important part of the book is the one that describes the vast density of Illyrians in Bosnia before the advent of the Romans and the Slavs:

After they had conquered the coastal tribes the Romans headed inland. At that time Bosnia was inhabited by numerous Illyrian tribes. They were considered as particularly brave and warlike by the surrounding tribes. The north-western part of Bosnia was inhabited by Japodi, east of them, between the rivers Vrbas and Bosna, were the Mezeji and in the central Podrinje there were Dindari. Desetijati inhabited central Bosnia, Dalmati western Bosnia and Ardijejci southern Herzegovina and the Adriatic coast.

Nakon što su pokorili obalna plemena Rimljani su krenuli u unutrašnjost zemlje. U to doba Bosna i Hercegovina je bila naseljena brojnim ilirskim plemenima. Ona su od okolnih plemena smatrana izuzetno hrabrim i ratobornim. Sjeverozapadnu Bosnu naseljavali su Japodi. Istočno do njih, između rijeka Vrbasa i Bosne, živjeli su Mezeji a u srednjem Podrinju Dindari. Desitijati su naseljavali srednju Bosnu, Dalmati zapadnu, a Ardijejci južnu Hercegovinu i primorje.

According to prof. dr. Enver Imamović and academician Muhamed Filipović, the Bosniak people are direct descendants of Illyrians which can be easily confirmed through various analyses especially historical but also religious.

It has long been regarded that the Albanians are the only direct descendants of the Illyrians, however the things that mr. Imamović and mr. Filipović have brought forth in their historical analysis's and papers confirmed the findings of the Swiss institute IGENEA. Namely, the experts of the institute came to a conclusion that only 20% of the Albanians have the Illyrian gene on the other hand 40% of the Bosnians have the gene as well.

When the Slavs arrived in the Balkans they performed genocide over the Illyrians, it is believed that 4 million of them were killed, and the survivors had to forcefully assimilate into the community of the Slavs. However the proud spirit of the Bosnian Illyrians has never disappeared nor did it cease to resist the Slavs.




Illyrians worshiped a God of sun and a goddess of moon and also kept the cult of the snake. There is a sizable amount of ethnological data about those beliefs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In Bosnia to date the ancient Illyrian snake cult has been preserved, the cult rests on the belief that every house has its own snake. That snake is the keeper of the house. Sometimes the snake can be seen in front of the house, and sometimes it can't. Even though the snake has never been sighted in front of a house, it was still believed that it is there. Sometimes the owners of the house saw the snake and they would leave food for it in front of the house. They cared for it so that nothing bad would happen to it. If something were to happen to the snake or if it was killed, then people would expect the worse things for that household.

The big mother (Terra Mater, Magna Mater, Mater Deorum) is one of the oldest and most widespread cults in the world, the origins of this cult can be traced to the old matriarchal age and the stone age. The big mother is considered as the mother of gods and people, but also of the whole universe during life. She was celebrated along the Mediterranean basin under various names such as Rea, Gea, Demetra (Greece), Izida (Egypt), Ishtar (Babylon), Astarta (Syria) and the most widespread name Kibela (Asia minor and parts of the middle east). The rudiments of the ancient history and the big mother cult of the Middle Ages remained vivid and present in the spiritual world of the modern times, also it has been accepted by the religions of today. In that sense it is important to pay attention to the Madonna, Eve or Hava and in the end to the Kaaba in Makkah in whose centre the black meteorite is still situated, which is in fact the symbol of the big mother. The cult of Marry "virgin and Madonna" is a direct descendant of the cult of the big mother, because after the disappearance of the pagan cult of the mother-god there was a need to insert a new cult into this empty magical and religious void, this new cult would need to cushion the human need for a motherly mediator between the human and the divine, a mediator who is always gentle, tolerant and open to the demands of the humans and from whom one could always seek comfort in difficult times. Therefore we shouldn't be surprised that the famous holiday in the name of Artemide Efesia (which contained the elements of the cult of the big mother) which was held during 15th of August is now only transcribed by the Christians into the feast of our lady of assumption.

From its beginnings the cult of the big mother, the protector of fertility, was connected to agriculture. That's why the myths and legends are connected to agriculture, and the patriarchal communities claimed that the big mother thought people how to farm. From all of the above it is easy to conclude that her cult had the primary purpose of securing two key segments for the humans - food and offspring.

The big mother always manifested in two forms, she was the goddess of earth and the sky and in each form she had her unique powers. Observing the lunar cycle the humans created a calendar which followed the moon phases, they noticed that women's menstrual cycle corresponded to it, but most of all they were most impressed by the lunar phases of the appearance of the new moon (birth) and the disappearance of the moon (death) which incited a belief that the moon is he ruler of life and death. During the 28 lunar days the sky reflected a vivid description of a human life through the lunar phases - birth, growth, maturity which enables fertility and reproduction then the loss of vitality, old age and disappearance or death. In that sense the entire nature, water and earth, represented the creative powers of the big mother which feeds humans, her children, and provides them life.




In accordance with the Old Bosnian believes the Moon Goddess manifested in two forms. The first form was celestial and the second one was a tellurian. In her celestial form the Goddess had the power of magic and healing whilst in its tellurian form she was the goddess of fertility and well being. The text of the old Bosnian Love Chant alludes on her tellurian form, noticeable already in the beginning of the formula “Black Earth Mother, please help me, nor is this charm related to you neither to me, but to my dear…” When Christianity came into Bosnia and after that the Islam, the old cult of Mother Goddess was preserved, thanks to Bogumils, but with time the people forgot the meaning of most of the rituals and customs.

The belief in fairies is the best preserved part of the cult of Mother Goddess, which was kept in the mind of people. It is obvious that the cult could continue to exist only by loosing its religious significance and get a mark of local legends and superstitions. As such, it did not present any threat to monotheism but could have been forwarded from generation to generation. Based upon it, even the titles of Moon Goddess and Mother Earth had been changed into Zlatna (Golden Fairy) and Gorska vila (Forest Fairy). Both of them have been mentioned in the mythology of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The title Zlatna comes from the word gold which reminds of shinning, gloss or better to say the moonlight. The Gorska vila is the same as the Forest Fairy and the late title also refers to earth.

According to a local legend that we come across in north-western part of Bosnia (Velika Kladuša and Cazin), a son that raised an axe to kill his own mother was instantly punished by God and his dead body was placed on the moon to remind others what will happen to them if they try to kill their own mother. Even today the people believe that they can see the man's shadow holding an axe when the moon is full. In this legend we come across key elements of the old Bosnian lunar cult in which God (in the original version a Goddess) saved the mother which suggested that the Goddess (moon) protected pregnant women and mothers, i.e. women.

While the moon symbolised a goddess, the sun symbolised a god i.e. the male principle without which life could also not be possible. According to the description of some folk beliefs and customs about the sun we can assume that he was called god Trzan, Trzance or Tir.



Every large or small place in Bosnia and Herzegovina practiced a cult ritual dedicated to the sun. On the eastern side of a certain place there was always a holly place where people would gather to celebrate the solar deity. There they practiced the rituals dedicated to sun and also ritual games, which imitated the trajectory of the sun, competition and general fun. Such a place was usually called Igrište (a playground) or Trzan. One would always come to the holly place barefoot and one would also travel on foot which corresponded to the ritual reverence of the holly place. What is especially characteristic for the cult of the sun is playing rounds. Rounds is a game where everyone holds hands and makes a circle which symbolises the sun, its eternal cycle but also vivacity and cheerfulness. There are data that claim that until the middle of the last century, the Bosnians went to a place called Vrbanja in central Bosnia to practice Trzan and to organise various games and festivities.

We shouldn't disregard an interesting analysis of folk belief according to which the sun deity had a dualistic nature. We need to enumerate a few examples to make it a bit clearer. For starters we need to mention the belief from north-western part of Bosnia where women would cover the bowl that contained cow milk when they would carry it from one house to the other. They did it out of precaution so that the milk "doesn't see" the sun since it can harm the milk with its spellbound eyes, i.e. the cow that gives milk would lose its capability to produce milk. Milk is a classical woman's symbol of fertility and food which is a characteristic of the goddess. Is there a small part of a larger myth in this belief, a myth that speaks of the possessive nature of a god towards a goddess or is there a small dose of ancient patriarchy, it's hard to conclude.

Besides that people still believe that the sun is malicious and poisonous until 6th of May passes (Hidirlez) and that's why people don't recommend being exposed to the sun for long periods. A similar taboo is connected with the earth for which it is believed that it's not good to sit on it until a certain date passes or better yet the cold part of the year. So we come to a conclusion that everything in nature is harmful to humans until May because after that the danger recedes. Hidirlez or Jurjevo is also called among the folk Mijena, which literally means change, since it symbolised a change of seasons - the end of winter and the cold part of the year and the arrival of summer and the fruitful part of the year. In the past the calendar in Bosnia was divided into two seasons and not four. Therefore it is easy to assume that the cult of the sun god could be celebrated only in the second part of the year which perfectly corresponds to the old pagan division of the calendar year to the light and the dark part. It is necessary to mention that 6th of May is not the original holiday of the sun god that is depicted as returning strength and fertility to nature with his warmth, but the beginning of the month of May. However because of the strong influence of Christianity, which in fact couldn't fully ban the old pagan rituals, the holiday was moved from the 1st May to the 6th and was thus transformed into the holiday of Jurja who slays a dragon. A Dragon or a snake was always the symbols of paganism for the Christian clergy and therefore the symbolic slaying of the dragon should represent the destruction of the old religion. But, this Christian myth was also taken from a much older myth from the Iranian religion and myth about god Mithras who according to legend slays a bull out of whose dead body nature sprouts, especially grain which is necessary for the human race. However, for this text it is more important that Mithras was the sun god. The continuity of sun worship according to some available data never lost its basics but was only supplemented with new beliefs which came along with the Slavs but also with the members of the Persian religion. How strong was their influence is best depicted by the shrine of Mithras in Jajce which was built in 3rd century AD.

Of the other folk belief about the sun we need to mention those that can be classified as imitative magic based on the invocation and pleas for help and blessings from the sun. Today also Stravarke in Bosnia turn their hands clockwise while doing the melting of lead ritual, it is said that they are "following the sun". Also when they need to throw three embers into the bowl with water the Stravarka does it by first encircling the ember three times also in a clockwise direction. The above mentioned rule clearly shows the folk belief about the beneficial power of the sun when it comes to healing and annulling negative influences. However this isn't only practiced during the lead ritual, every time when one wants to do a magical step which needs to have a positive outcome or some benefit like giving to the poor, turning the beans when fortunetelling, kneading bread, etc. the rule of making three circles clockwise is always adhered.

In the past every wedding procession followed this holy rule which was understood as being beneficial for the wedded couple. That's why the wedding procession always went from the bride's house towards the groom's following the "sun route".

During the XII century, the Bogomils movement appeared in Bosnia which spread quickly and was accepted by most, its spread lasted until the XIX century as some claim. Besides firmly resisting many rules of the Christian religion, the Bosnian Bogomils kept a large part of their old Illyrian religion which worshiped nature and its forces. Namely, it is known that the Church of Bosnia didn't have any sacral objects and also that it fought against construction of such objects. Instead they chose places in nature, in the open - according to some they were old pagan sanctuaries.

Besides that the Bogomils were socially and morally conscious. prof. dr. Enver Imamović points out in regards to the remains of Bogomilism among the Bosnians of today a few character traits and behaviours which are an age-old tradition of Bosnia and Herzegovina: courtesy towards the elderly, women and children, sense of justice, patience, knack for business, hospitality and love for their parents.




The holly day Tuesday

The holly day of the Bogomils was not Sunday but Tuesday which is confirmed by a few old beliefs which survived in the minds of the Bosnian people until today. Namely, it is believed that the end of times will take place on Tuesday, which has nothing to do with Islam, also the believed that the most severe punishments in court should be ruled on Tuesdays. In both of these beliefs we find a strong symbolism of Tuesday and the explanation as to why the Bogomils held their prayers on Tuesday - the believers prayed to God in order to amend themselves and also to postpone the end of the world. Also on Tuesday the grandfather (overseer), the priests of the Bogomils, conducted a role of a judge in disputes which certain people had amongst themselves.

Almost all of the holy places in Bosnia and Herzegovina which were used in the past for duas and praying are actually old Bogomil holly places. According to many historians one of the heads of the Bosnian church was Ajvaz-Dedo (grandfather). In his famous work "The history of the Bosnian Bogomils", Salih Jalimam claims that it has been historically confirmed that Ajvaz-grandfather was a Bogomil because of the prayers held in the old Bogomil monastery, and also because of the title grandfather (Did, Djed, Dedo) which was held by the highest ranking Bogomils.

In the north-western part of Bosnia we come across another grandfather called Did Adže (Grandfather Adže) who fully fits the description of a Bogomil leader - he is old, wears white clothes, has a long white beard and black shoes. The memory of him never disappeared but has been transformed in a legend about a ghost who is in charge of scaring the children. But also in this legend Did Adže has a task to scare the children better yet to teach them good manners and teach them to be obedient which clearly shows an authoritative person, like the grandfathers among the Bogomils. Another story is connected to Did Adže, namely he rides a huge rooster, has the ability to teleport and he is extremely wise. Some stories claim that he knows the location for the entrance to the underworld.

NAME: Illyrian





EVOLVED FROM: Danubian / Yamnaya





COUNTRY: Albania / Croatia / Bosnia and Hercegovina / Romania / Greece / Turkey





REGION: Dalmatia, Bosnia/Hercegovina





TERRITORY: Illyria





LANDMARKS: Adriatic Sea / Balkan Peninsula





SITES: Gmunden / Oberzeiring / Koman





CENTERS: Glasinac / Skodra





AGE: Neolithic / Bronze / Iron





DATES: BC 2000 /BC 15th – 12th c / BC 1000 / BC 900 / BC 8th c / BC 5th c / BC 393 / BC 359 / BC 310 / BC 3rd / AD 168





DEITIES: Galatea





SIGNATURE: tumulus / villages / hillforts / tattoos / horse breeders / sea raiders / lembi

Illyrians or slaves, not Slavs!
Two great misconceptions, mostly malicious (nationalist-chauvinist-driven), reign the historical sciences in the western-Balkans for the last two and a half centuries. The first misconception concerns the never-ending disputation between the Albanian and the Serbian school. While the former school claims Albanians to be the last (only authentic?) surviving Illyrians, the latter claims not only that Albanians are Thracians (i.e., not Illyrians) but it also says that no such people as Illyrians has ever existed, instead contending that the locals were all Slav/Serb because ancient sources are filled with references to "sclavs" and "serfs"... The second misconception is related to the first, and it concerns the issue of who the Slavs were (or weren't) in the Balkans before the national awakening of the 18th century... The reason for the two schools being so unapologetic lies in the possible answers to the crucial question they thus pose: Whose is the western Balkans? But being so extreme, neither of those two views seems very authentic; besides, no other interested parties living in the area have ever been asked for their opinion on the above two fundamental disputes that can (and do - as we speak) have great repercussions on lives of millions. At the same time, both schools oppose wholeheartedly and fight fiercely any idea of Bosnia-centered Illyria, even though the idea is supported by a world's leading authority on Illyrians, Professor of Roman and Greek archaeology John Wilkes (the author of "The Illyrians", Oxford Press 2000).
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The first dispute is dealt with easily just by stacking ancient maps in time. Thus by looking at the Ptolemy's Map [on the left] one can see that (province of) Illyria was alive and well just around year 100 AD, i.e. about the time the legend of Christ took roots. Following the situation as it developed, some centuries later there it is yet again [on the right] - amongst other Roman provinces including the conquered Dacia (today's Romania). What's curious about this however is that of all the provinces shown on the maps, only the detailed records on how Illyria was conquered are missing, unlike say the well-documented conquest of Dacia (see article of 26 August). However, it's not just that military papers are mysteriously lost, but according to Wilkes "even today Illyrians barely make the footnotes in most versions of ancient history" as well. Indeed, with exception of a partly preserved appendix on Illyrian wars, by Appian of Alexandria (95-165 AD), there is virtually no complete account available on (the conquest of) Illyria!
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Wilkes supports the concept of a Bosnia-centered Illyria, proposing that it's actually Bosnia, not Albania, which was (the center of) Illyria. This is also obvious from the maps shown here. It's rather a mystery how Bosnia, so prominent and nearby the Rome itself, could have gotten omitted from most texts from/on the Roman Empire. He writes of Illyrians:
(1) "...A separate group of Illyrians identified by renowned historian Geza Alfoldy: he identifies 'Pannonian peoples' in Bosnia, northern Montenegro [around Pljevlja and Prijepolje, p.84] and western Serbia [Sandžak]". p.75
(2) "Not much reliance should perhaps be placed on attempts to identify an Illyrian anthropological type as short and dark-skinned similar to modern Albanians." p.219
(3) "...a documented description of Illyrians, Pannonian family: -Pannonians are tall and strong, always ready for a fight and to face dangeour but slow-witted." p.219
(4) "Life has always been hard in the Illyrian lands and countless wars of resistance against invaders are testimony to the durability of their populations." p.220
(5) "In sum, the destructive impact [of Bosnia-centred theory] on the earlier generalizations regarding Illyrians should be regarded as a step forward." p.40.

The Illyrians-Bogomils-Bosniaks continuity is self-evident as the above finds coincide with the settlements of today's Bosniaks (the Muslims of the Balkans). Note ancient maps [above] corroborating the early Antiquity-Ottoman Empire continuity too: there [left] you can see that, of the entire western Balkans, only Bosnia was called Illyria (proper) with own Sea called Illyricum Mare (part of a larger, Adriatic - Emperor Hadrian's Sea). It can be also seen that during the whole time of their independence, Illyrians had a coast from today's Dubrovnik to Šibenik. This simply continued (wasn't given to Bosnia by anyone!) during the entire period of Middle Ages [right], after the Holy See helped establish Kingdom of Bosnia just like many other European kingdoms that Vatican designed so to replace the fallen Roman Empire with a kingdoms-padded geopolitical shield protecting Rome for millennia to come - if you can't have one huge empire any more, then have a number of loyal and small nonetheless resilient states instead. Given that there are more than 200 scholastic theories on why the Empire fell (meaning no one has a slightest clue as to why it happened), it could also be that it never has fallen but was transformed (in the above described manner) instead.
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Contrary to common belief, for the most part of their long history Illyrians/Bosnians had a strong fleet, brave infantry, and able generals. As immediate neighbors of the Romans and Greeks, they were enormously envied however. Therefore no Roman or Greek record referred to the Illyrians in any other way except as "pirates", "thieves", "barbarians", "rebels" or even "sclavs" and "serfs" (Lat. sclavo = Slav; serf = servus = slave, later on 'exiled Russian slave'), both terms used by the Romans as insult only, i.e., long before the 6th century when real Slav hordes began attacking and committing mass murder of thousands of Illyrians at a time, always careful not to encounter the Roman legions but only unarmed civilians (thus "softening" the Roman defenses that semi-relied on non-Italian recruits in Illyria and Thracia; before moving the border of civilizations westward to Drina River and on). Probably, the insults were part of the first geopolitical game ever played in the Antiquity, where both Rome and Greece played on the card of a well-known geopolitical fact that your immediate neighbor is your enemy, and that your immediate neighbor's neighbor is your natural ally. Similarly, later on, in the 18th century, Serbian nationalists will claim that all "sclav" and "serf" ever mentioned in the Antiquity were actually Serbs. (In the same grabbing manner they simplistically and systematically translated all appearances of 'Sclavoniae' in Latin texts, as 'Serbia(n)'.) Thus it's Serbian relentless nationalism that makes it important to set the record straight - today more than ever. Hence etymology of the word 'sclav' is completely unrelated to what's contended, so Serbia's historians cannot claim Slavic heritage from the ancient times for any of the peoples westward from the Drina, just like Albanians cannot claim their exclusive, pure-Illyrian heritage either. The real (and the only statistically significant) Slavs that exist in Bosnia nowadays are the Bosnian Orthodox (self-styled "Bosnian Serbs" although most are born in Bosnia) whose immediate ancestors (up to third knee) largely moved in from Serbia and Croatia during the last ninety years or so, thanks to Austria's and Serbia's administrations trying to Christianize the domestic Illyrian population.
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No wonder both (and only) the Serbian and Albanian schools largely dismiss Wilkes (thus giving him an enormous credibility), for Wilkes says it's hard to believe Bosnian-Illyrian tribes were "Romanized", "Hellenized", etc. This however is what the Serbian school needs desperately so that they too can claim that the same tribes had been also "Slavicized" after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Mid Ages. Everyday experience however teaches us that assimilation of entire peoples/tribes under occupation is practically impossible, and can instead be expected to occur only in individuals moving to a foreign land. The maximum extent to which assimilation is able to get is already known from everyday life, the best example being our present-day diaspora: our refugees who got entirely surrounded by foreign language adopt that language as quickly as by 2nd generation. On the other hand, an occupation is an occupation is... then as nowadays - take for instance the Ottoman occupation of Bosnia (1527-1878) during which time Bosnians acquired only religion from their occupationists, but not their culture, tradition, or language for that matter. It has been suggested that Bosnians had attained language from the Slavs, and religion from the Turks, but it's a fact that they had never adopted both from the both. This arbitrariness is an important circumstantial evidence that "Romanization", "Hellenization", "Slavization", "Turkization", or "Germanization" were all practically impossible in Bosnia! Finally, if such "izations" were at all possible, why is it that the Bosnians adopted neither religion nor language from the Austrian occupationists too? The relatively shorter duration of that occupation compared to the other two occupations cannot be the answer because say the Roman occupation had lasted much longer than any other, yet most of the Illyrians-Bosnians had adopted neither Latin language nor Catholic religion, not to mention Roman culture, art or tradition.
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Also, as Wilkes suggests, given the military mindedness of the Illyrians [royal armor shown above, soldier's armor on the left], as well as their vigilance and resistance to numerous conquerors through ages, it can be said with high certainty that today's Bosnians [Bosnian Muslims and Catholics] are direct descendants of the Illyrians who never "disappeared" or "got assimilated". Add to this the non-stop putting-down of Bosnians (via jokes akin of those on "slow-witted" Illyrians) that continues to this day and is mostly favored in Serbia and Croatia (same as in Greece and Rome a few millennia ago). Namely, this is an anecdotal evidence for validity of the Bosnia-centered theory of Illyria. Be it noted at the end that authenticity of many intermediate maps (produced in times before or after the maps showed above) can also be questioned, as such maps mostly come from Serbian (and to a lesser extent Croatian, albeit not less confused and not less nationalist-chauvinist) sources. Therefore it'd be useful to deliberately dispute all Serbian and Croatian historical references (sources, maps, analyses) on ancient and medieval Bosnia, at least until the time tells the true science from nationalist-driven (geo)politics. Unfortunately, history of Europe is history of war, even more so in case of the Balkans, and even more so still in case of Bosnia. Therefore, most of the grand events/undertakings in the area can probably be explained by geopolitical motives and related military activities. I don't need to remind the reader that the same overlaying set of rules applies to Bosnia even today, as it did in her recent past (Dayton Accord 1995, Teheran Conference 1943, Berlin Congress 1878), the most recent Kosovo-Bosnia connection - including the 1992-1995 aggression - being its latest manifestation as we speak... This is also why in the above I use geopolitical maps only (to show that most of the intermediate maps are unreliable), for geopolitics is "oberpolitics", with everything else (including history) from Antiquity till today being nothing more than its byproduct.

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