The main entrance hall of the Acibadem Maslak Hospital in Istanbul’s European quarter is crammed with relatives of Turkish pop singer Ibrahim Tatlises, who is being treated here for gunshot wounds, and security guards, anxious to keep the press at bay.

The village of Berini lies 20 km south of the city of Timişoara in western Romania. The first historical record of the village, whose name means lamb in English, dates back to the 14th century.

Salahetting Bolukbas’s 21-year-old niece stands on a glass bar serving hunks of Bosnian burek in the main thoroughfare of Bayrampasa, a suburb on the European, western side of Istanbul.

While Ankara maintains close diplomatic relations with Skopje, cemented by their shared political enmity toward Greece, Turkey must step carefully when it comes to inter-ethnic disputes within ‘the heart of the Balkans’.