Product Description

This is an account of the war in the Balkans during the 1990s. As the only member of NATO and the European Union to support Slobodan Milosevic's regime in the conflict following the breakup of Yugoslavia, Greece broke ranks with its western allies, frustrating their efforts to impose sanctions against Serbia. The work looks at Greek-Serbian relations and tackles the difficult question of how the Greek people could ignore Serbian aggression and war crimes. Journalistic accounts are combined with anecdotes and personal interviews to show a pattern of Greek support for Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic that implicates Greek politicians from all parties, as well as the Greek Orthodox Church, the Greek media, and ultimately the Greek people themselves. The evidence and conclusions presented aim to question the opinion that a new liberal order replaced the ideological standoff of the Cold War, but it will not surprise those who suspected that older allegiances have now claimed loyaties of many of the world's peoples.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #555505 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 200 pages

Review
"...an impressive book combining personal observation, exhaustive investigation, humanitarian concerns, and political analysis... essential reading for all those Europeans, Americans, and Greeks who are concerned with Greece's role in the Balkans, NATO, the European Union, and the world." - Samuel Huntington

About the Author
TAKIS MICHAS lives in Athens, where he works for the Greek daily Eleftherotypia. He is the author of two previous books and has contributed articles to the Wall Street Journal and the New Republic.

Customer Reviews

A fascinating book on a little talked about subject!!
A fascinating book on a little talked about subject!! Takis Michas analyzes the pro-western facade of the
Greek political class,only to discover the grim face of xenophobia, ethnic
nationalism and Orthodox Christian fundamentalism. Michas claims that
Greece did not side with Milosevic's 's and Karadzic's Serbia during the
war in Bosnia because of geo-strategic reasons;its support reflected of the
ethnonational ideology that dominates Greek society.

I do not however wholy agree on this point with the author. The truth is
that Greek public opinion was badly misled on the war in Bosnia,( as it was
also misled later on the war in Kosovo) by its market - driven media.
Nothing was practically reported on Greek TV about the war in Bosnia.
Greek TV media reporting , pinpointed only the common religious element
Greece shares with the Serbs , while associating directly or indirectly the
Bosniacs with the Turks and the Ottoman empire. All in all , "The Unholly
Alliance" is an interesting book to read with a significant message..I hope
that many fellow Greeks will read it and recognize some of our serious political shortcomings.

Accurate but one-sided
First of all, before I review this book I would just like to point out that I respect everyone's opinion of the interpretations of the Balkan conflict, even when they differ from my own.

Now then, Michas appears to be a very humane man, interested in the human rights of Albanians and all other ethnic groups in the Balkans, except for the Serbs, it seems. He argues in his book that the Greek people who stood in solidarity with the Serbs during NATO's 78 day bombing campaign in 1999 were not supporting the Serb people but supporting Milosevic's government and therefore supporting ethnic cleansing and war crimes.

Yet, there is no evidence of this. This seems to be simple conjecture, rather than solid fact. He also claims that the Greek media was very one-sided during the Balkan conflict, only showing the Serbs' side of the story, while he himself falls into the same trap; that is, showing only the Muslims' and Albanians' suffering.

He also seems to have nothing but contempt for those Greek volunteers who helped the Serbs during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, attributing collective guilt to all of them i.e. treating all of them as war criminals, when there is no evidence to suggest that they all committed war crimes.
There are other points I could raise about his book but it would take up too much space. The reason why I gave the book a 3 star is because it is interesting and covers a topic not discussed in any other book (at least not to my knowledge).
I myself have communicated with Mr Michas over e-mail and he seems to now be more skeptical about NATO's bombing of Serbia.