Originally Posted by
Snowraven
Ok, let's respond in short:
Basically several cultures were there. After WW1 Yugoslavia was first formed. It took parts of Austro-Hungary too as Serbia was on the winning side and was renamed Yugoslavia. In WW2 Italy, Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria split it between them but a puppet state of Croatia was formed as many of the croats wanted to fight for the Axis and have an independent nation (Croatians weren't the only people to do this by the way)
During the war someone lead a great guerilla war, this was Tito. Tito was a communist and after the war he was hailed as a great hero and came to power (to note, Yugoslavia was not part of the soviet side on the Yalta split). Now, USSR approached him to be part of the block of communist nations. He refused. So basically, he was indeed a dictator, he was communist, but he was outside USSR's power.
Now, Tito kept the nation together by treating everyone equal(except Albanians, this is due to the fact that Albania was USSR aligned mostly) and ensuring some prosperity. However, he also used incarceration of those he found to be threats (like stalinists or nationalist Albanians living there).
Now, when he died, Slobodan Milosevic started trying to restore the position of power Serbia had over the other nation-like entities. This created unrest. It culminated with the Yugoslav break-up when some nations declared independence and Serbia sent forces against the others, resulting in some genocides performed by several of the sides.
How do turks fit in the equation? We have to go back waaaay further. Once upon a time the Ottoman Empire had reached Hungary, so current Yugoslavia was under its grasp. As it was forced to retreat, muslim converts from the conquered nations remained behind. Most of them were in Bosnia/Hertzegovina of today.
As for Bosnia & Hertzegovina, basically it shouldn't truly exist. It was mostly the buffer zone between the Croats and the Serbs and some Bosnians caught in the middle. Still, when it was formed, it was split in 3, can't remember exact entities, but the point is that it still has some strife and it's an artificial nation more or less. Which is why it's doing so bad.