"May you live and be healty and
get old and gray like the Old Mountain…"
(An old Shop toast dedicated to the bride and bridegroom)
 

Can Shop (Shopsko), as a pavitly forgotten and neglected name of the central part of the Balkans, become nowadays, in this modern time, a factor of connecting peoples and countries of the Balkan Peninsula? Have the historical, political, social, cultural and other conditions developed, which would finally enable Shopluk to demonstrate its integrative possibilites and turn into "a connecting and linking bridge" out of "the seed of discord"? These, as well as many other questions dealing with Shopluk and Shops are the starting point of our research interest. Thus, in this article we shall strive to follow the trail of answering them.
Namely, Shopluk as an ethnographic area, and Shops, as an ethnographic group, hide, in our opinion, certain possibilities of the regional cooperation and bringing together of Serbs, Bulgarians and Macedonians, as well as the countries in which these peoples live. Reducing their integrative possibilities to a real scope we are aware that their function of connection and cooperation cannot be great and important. However, we are sure that in this for centuries tumultuous area, even the least contribution must not be neglected. Thus, it is our wish to initiate again the discussion on the phenomenon of Shopluk and indicate some basic prerequisites of its Balkan integration. Although it has long been a nationally differentiated territory, it its ethnic layers, hides in the possibilities of a bridging character. Shopluk and Shops are patiently waiting for their researchers.

Key words:  Shopluk (Shopsko), Shops, the Balkans, integration, cooperation, ethnographic area, ethnographic group, national identity 

"Da ste živi i zdravi i da ostareete i
obeleete kako Stara planina…"
/Stara šopska zdravica upućena mladencima /
 

Da li Šopluk (Šopsko), kao već pomalo zaboravljeni i zapostavljeni naziv centralnog dela Balkana, može u ovom sadašnjem, savremenom vremenu postati faktor koji će povezivati narode i države Balkanskog poluostrva? Da li su se stekli istorijski, poilitički, društveni, kulturni i drugi uslovi koji bi napokon omogućili Šopluku da ispolji svoje integrativne mogućnosti i da od "sjemena razdora" postane "most spajanja i povezivanja"? Ova , kao i mnoga druga pitanja koja su vezana za Šopluk i Šope jesu polazna tačka našeg istraživačkog interesovanja, pa ćemo stoga i nastojati da u ovom radu budemo na tragu njihovog odgonetanja.
Naime, Šopluk kao etnografska oblast i Šopi kao etnografska grupa, po našem mišljenju, kriju izvjesne mogućnosti regionalne saradnje i zbližavanja Srba, Bugara i Makedonaca ali i država u kojima ovi narodi žive. Svodeći njegove integrativne mogućnosti u realne okvire, svesni smo da njegova funkcija povezivanja i saradnje ne može biti velika i značajna. Međutim, uvereni smo da na ovom, vekovima burnom prostoru, i najmanji doprinos ne sme biti zanemaren. Stoga nam je i želja, da ponovo iniciramo raspravu o fenomenu Šopluka i naznačimo neke osnovne preduslove njegove balkanske integracije. Iako već odavno nacionalno izdiferencirani prostor, on u svojim etničkim slojevima krije skrivene mogućnosti mostovskog karaktera. Šopluk i Šopi strpljivo čekaju svoje istraživače.

Ključne reči: Šopluk (Šopsko), Šopi, Balkan, integracija, saradnja, etnografski prostor, etnografska grupa, nacionlani identitet