[3] It was originally described as a subspecies of the southern crested newt, "Triturus karelinii arntzeni", in 1999,[4] and later considered a full species when genetic data showed it to be distinct.

The species epithet was chosen in honour of Bulgarian herpetologist Ivan Buresh.

An isolated population, surrounded by other crested newt species, occurs in Serbia.

[3] Genetic data showed that Northern Anatolian populations east of the Bosphorus and Bursa form a separate, but morphologically indistinguishable sibling species, which was described as Anatolian crested newt (T. anatolicus) in 2016.

[7] The type specimen of "T. arntzeni" is in fact a hybrid between the Balkan and the Macedonian crested newt, so that this name is a synonym for both species.