BALKAN relative to the Balkans, one of the three great peninsulas of southern Europe, continent to which it is linked by the Balkan mountains to the east (hence its name) and the Dinaric Alps, to the west. It is made up of eleven countries Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. The westernmost part of Turkey is also part of . See also BALKANISM
