Balkans - a large peninsula in southeastern Europe containing the Balkan Mountain RangeBalkan Wars - two wars (1912-1913) that were fought over the last of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire and that left the area around Constantinople (now Istanbul) as the only Ottoman territory in Europe Croatia, Hrvatska, Republic of Croatia - a republic in the western Balkans in south-central Europe in the eastern Adriatic coastal area; formerly part of the Habsburg monarchy and Yugoslavia; became independent in 1991 Macedon, Makedonija, Macedonia - the ancient kingdom of Philip II and Alexander the Great in the southeastern Balkans that is now divided among modern Macedonia and Greece and Bulgaria Thrace - a region and ancient country and wine producing region in the east of the Balkan Peninsula north of the Aegean Sea; colonized by ancient Greeks; later a Roman province; now divided between Bulgaria and Greece and Turkey Macedonia - landlocked republic on the Balkan Peninsula; achieved independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 Republic of Turkey, Turkey - a Eurasian republic in Asia Minor and the Balkans; achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1923 Europe - the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use `Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles peninsula - a large mass of land projecting into a body of water Balkan - an inhabitant of the Balkan Peninsula |