The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word MACEDONIA
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
M
A
C
E
D
O
N
I
A
More clues leading to the result MACEDONIA
- Church work feeding obsession in the country
- Country club fellow, one with class essentially
- Country club teacher finds wonderful? The reverse
- Country club put on one extravaganza at last
- Comedian sacked by head of austere region of Greece (9
- Madness holding church function in the country
- Dud and I came to tour old country
- A comedian’s funny state
- Staff professor, first class, brought up in old country
- I moan about eating perfectly served fruit salad
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Balkan region" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case balkan region = macedonia.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.