My first introduction to the incomprehensible Balkans came from reading Srđa Trifković in Chronicles magazine (I’ve never figured out how his name is pronounced). This was probably 1991, before they started slaughtering each other as I recall.
He said politics there is so complex and tribal that even the locals have trouble deciphering it.
I have all of Trifković’s books and am an admirer of his.
How to pronounce his name: SUR-jah TRIF-ko-vich.
Yes, politics is very complicated there, but that doesn’t stop them talking about it — and history. They can go on for hours and hours.