What is the situation in Kosovo, the Ukraine of the Balkans?

Now I ask you, Dear Readers. Is it possible to separate the "Utopia of Panslavism" from the "Expansionist Russian Thought System"? As far as I am concerned, even the question is absurd. I wish it were possible. It is not possible. This situation has become so entrenched that the answer to this question is almost a straightforward statement that it is not possible. The "Utopia of Panslavism" within the "Expansionist Russian System of Thought" is so deeply ingrained in the Russian people and the Russian state system that it is almost as if a "special bond" between Russia and the Slavic nations of the Balkans has stuck to them. At any level, this is an integral part of Russian identity. NATO documents have always been created in opposition to this way of thinking. The "Doctrine of Aggression" is always an apparatus of this dominant system of thought.  The vehicle of the Utopia of Panslavism is the Slavic Nations and Related Communities in the Balkans. For this reason, the Russians sincerely believe that in order to become a great power, it is imperative to intervene and have a presence in the Balkans. There is no doubt that this situation has manifested itself with historical facts and background from the past to the present. There are two historical reasons for this situation. The first one is the Slavs' belief in the need for a unity across borders and the second one is their interest in controlling the Turkish Straits. (1) 

It must be said here that the importance of the Turkish Straits, which were integrated by the Republic of Turkey with the Black Sea, Marmara Sea and Mediterranean Straits, is much better understood with the Montreux Straits Convention of 1936.

The second question to be asked is, has post-Cold War Russia withdrawn from the Balkans on its way to restructuring? This is the question. Undoubtedly, as Russia evolved from the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation (RF), it was initially unable to fully define a Panslavist political strategy towards the Balkans in its global foreign policy strategy.  More precisely, the Glastnost (Openness) and Perestroika (Restructuring) policies that were put into practice from the 1980s onwards did not allow for this. Mikhail Gorbachev, one of the great leaders of the Soviet regime, seeing that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was on its last legs, embarked on a series of political moves in the name of democratization to resurrect the country and political thought. The democratization reforms began to be implemented in 1985 and ended with the collapse of the Soviet regime in December 1991. Therefore, the RF took a passive stance during the civil war as Yugoslavia disintegrated, thus alienating the Slavic nations of the Balkans from Russia and reducing its influence in the region. Many politicians in Russia saw the collapse of Yugoslavia as the first attempt of Soros' "color revolutions" in the post-Soviet era, in which the West ignored Moscow's views. Meanwhile, Russia, through Serbia, opposed Kosovo's independence and never got over its disappointment at losing its influence over Kosovo. Apart from Russia's continued pressure on Kosovo through Serbia, Russia's return to its expansionist policy under Putin was clearly manifested in the Russian military intervention in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia in 2008, to which the US and the European Union (EU), which had become dependent on Russian energy, failed to react strongly enough. The lack of a tough stance against Moscow over its invasion of Georgia in 2008 led to the invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014.  

Russia's war in Ukraine since February 24, 2022 has caused concern and anxiety in the countries of the region about the revival of its expansionist goals in the Balkans. After the Ukraine crisis, Russia's role in the Balkans has expanded in the case of Serbia, which is a kind of core state of the former Yugoslavia, increasing the possibility of new tensions, especially in Kosovo. 

Russia's intervention in Ukraine, a kind of September 11th of 2022, has led to a rise in tensions in Kosovo, the youngest state in the Balkans, which has not been stabilized for years. While the possibility of conflict has been growing for a long time in Kosovo, where more than 50,000 Serbs out of a population of one million 800,000, who are barely clinging to the country, Serbs have been putting up fierce resistance against Pristina's efforts to increase its authority over the Serb minorities, who form the majority in the north of the country. 

In this context, Serbs, who constitute Kosovo's largest minority group with 8 percent of Kosovo's population, responded to the Kosovo government's demands to 'carry a temporary identity card instead of a Serbian one' and to 'change car license plates to Kosovo license plates instead of Serbian ones' by blocking roads. This harsh reaction stems from Serbia's former President Slobadan Milošević's deliberate resettlement of Serbs in the northern part of the Republic of Kosovo, in the Mitrovica region, after the Croatian Armed Forces inflicted a decisive defeat on the Krayina Serbian Republic, which had failed to gain a foothold in Croatia after a four-year adventure before the Dayton agreement. 

The possibility of a 'hot conflict' is always high as Serbia, which has close relations with Russia, considers Kosovo, which has the support of the United States, as 'its territory'. In a world reshaped after the collapse of the USSR and in search of its balance, NATO first appeared militarily on the ground in the Balkans. NATO, which played an active role in the Yugoslav Civil War, first imposed a naval blockade in Serbia's waters, blocking the entry and exit of Serbian ships, and then declared a no-fly zone in the airspace of Bosnia and Herzegovina. NATO's naval and air control then expanded and lasted until 1996. 

In 1999, NATO bombed targets in Kosovo and Serbia for eleven weeks after Serbian leader Milosevic launched genocide against Kosovars and rejected a peace agreement. On June 10, 1999, Slobodan Milosevic, the leader of Yugoslavia and President of Serbia, agreed to withdraw his troops from Kosovo in exchange for a halt to the air campaign and a proposal that NATO deploy troops in Kosovo and that the region be administered by a UN mission. Milosevic surrendered in 2001 and died in prison in The Hague on March 11, 2006 while on trial for war crimes. NATO, which had been stationed in Kosovo since 1999 at the Bond Steel camp, declared that it was 'ready to intervene if stability is jeopardized'. (2) 

To cut a long story short, the dissolution of the USSR and Yugoslavia led to a power vacuum in Central Asia, the Caucasus and mainly in the Balkans. The chaotic situation caused by the struggle over who would fill this power vacuum in the Balkans and the instabilities caused by Serbia's attempts to take advantage of this new situation were prevented, albeit belatedly, by the interventions led by the United States, the leader of the unipolar world. (3) 

In the aftermath of the crisis, NATO's credibility has been strengthened and the position of the United States as a hegemonic power has strengthened. Of course, as a natural consequence of this situation, requests from the former Eastern Bloc states to join NATO have also increased. Furthermore, the huge embassy buildings built by the US in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, and Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, were welcomed by the Albanians after the Bosnians and increased its influence over them, while on the military side, the Bond Steel base was an indicator of the US power in the region. To put it more accurately, the US conducted its intervention in Kosovo according to a superior state strategy, showing that it would not give up on pursuing policies, demonstrating and implementing its power in order to ensure its national interests. First of all, due to the self-interested attitude of the Security Council, which consists of five states in the UN, the way to use NATO was opened and implemented instead of a structure where it is difficult to make a joint decision on an intervention. (4) 

By the way, the lands left by the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans are still in a weak state, despite the passage of more than 100 years. This is why Soros, the Hungarian-born US speculator, has made it a mission for the EU(D) to claim the direct legacy of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. Just as the motive for a war is clear, so is the target. The target is the Ottoman Empire's province of Macedonia, consisting of Bitola, Kosovo and the capital Thessaloniki.  

Today, the target is Greece, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Aegean, Epirus and Vardar Macedonia are the target. This is why the US raised its Embassy in Skopje, in Vardar Macedonia, above the Ottoman martyrdom. In the French Cemetery next to the Ottoman Martyrdom, the French flag is still flying. What should we say? The US, which put money in the budget for the bones of American soldiers lost in Vietnam, destroyed the bones of Ottoman martyrs. The Republic of Turkey, which is the continuation of the Ottoman Empire, must protect its martyrs' cemeteries around the world and the bones of our ancestors, wherever they are, as a sign of our existence. This is one of the most important distinguishing features of being a rooted state. Let us not forget that martyrs are the title deed of a country's existence and every martyr is an indelible nail driven into the land of the homeland. Every martyr who falls to the ground as if entering a rose garden is the registration of our existence, a deed deed. This is why it was deemed necessary to destroy this consciousness.   

For this reason, the US believed that this was how they would end the 550-year existence of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans.  The US built the largest military base ever established by the US on foreign soil, the 'Bondsteel Camp', also known as the "armory of the 21st century", in Kosovo on another Ottoman soil. KFOR soldiers serving in Kosovo said: "There are two things visible from space. One is the Great Wall of China, the other is this base'. Spread over an area of 460 thousand square meters, the base is located in the Presevo Valley. In other words, it is on the planned route of energy corridor number 8, sponsored by the EU since 1994, and on the planned route of the giant 894-kilometer Trans-Balkan oil pipeline to be sponsored by the US. (5)

Yes, Dear Readers, after this documentary work I have done, I crossed from Macedonia to Kosovo on August 06, 2022, after the reflex of resistance exhibited by the Serbs subsided with the Kosovo government's decision to postpone for one month the decision to 'carry a temporary identity card instead of Serbian identity card' and to 'change the car license plates to Kosovo license plates instead of Serbian license plates', as I always do as an investigative journalist. The goal I set was to see the places where the events took place, to take a breath in Prizren, a Turkish city, and to take the pulse of the people. The foremost issue I sought answers about was the testing of trust in the United States. The second issue was Serbia's salvos against Kosovo's sovereignty. 

Yes, dear readers, first and foremost, I must say that Kosovo, as a NATO member, trusts the United States above all else, both as a people and as a state. As Kosovo's Prime Minister Kurti stated, "We are facing Serbian national chauvinism, which we know well", and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who is known as Little Putin in the region, emphasized that "Kosovo is Serbia" when the Republic of Kosovo, recognized by 97 countries as of March 2020, caused sirens to sound and escalation in the country. A similar approach was reflected in the graffiti "Macedonia belongs to Greece" during the Macedonia-Greece tension. In the areas where Serbs settled in northern Kosovo, Serbs blocked some city roads with the slogans "Kosovo is Serbia" under the pictures of "Putin the Great" and "Putin the Little". Following the escalation of tensions, the Serbian Ministry of Defense was forced to state that they had not intervened in Kosovo and that the disinformation on social media should be disregarded. 

Having lived in Macedonia in the summer, I can say that Kosovo is by far ahead of Macedonia in terms of highways. This was also an indication of the military mobilization that could happen in the future and at any time. In addition to this, the variety of vehicle models on the roads and the abundance of mansion-like houses in the settled life, in short, the wealth of the people was striking, and as if integrated with the EU, the "Euro" became the official currency of the country. However, I would like to point out that Macedonia is trying to manage its economy with the national currency "dinar". Another observation is that, except for the Serbs, there is the highest level of mutualism towards the USA. It is as if the people have made the statement "As long as the US is here, nothing will happen to Kosovo" a flag. When I took a breather in Prizren, I had already started singing one of the lively and entertaining vaudeville numbers from the famous musical "Luxurious Life". 

"Hey luxury life luxury life

Enjoy yourself and go to bed

What a life thing

Oh how cozy

You have no equal in luxury life"

"This, Dear Readers, is how the events in Kosovo, which have been postponed for a month for now, are seen from Prizren. 

RF, whose political power in the Balkans was largely eroded after the Cold War until the 2000s, is trying to restore its former influence in the Balkans with Putin's coming to power and the change in foreign policy. In other words, Russia, which had difficulty in using hard power during the civil war in the 1990s, gives the appearance that it can use its show of force in the Balkans and primarily in Kosovo in the new process that started with its intervention in Ukraine. Undoubtedly, the opening of Panslavism and Pan-Orthodoxy through Serbia both facilitates and paves the way for Russia in this struggle. It has been seen and tested that the active role of the US in the crises and its ability to intervene easily under the mask of NATO strengthens the argument that the US is considered the strongest party in this struggle today. After all this, I would like to say that the people in Kosovo have become so Ukrainized that the famous nursery rhyme from our childhood comes to mind on every occasion. And when I see a Kosovar intellectual who thinks otherwise, as the saying goes, "Or are you one of those we have not "Ukrainized"?"

Footnotes:

(1) “Rusya’nın Balkanlar’a Yönelik Politikası ve Ukrayna Krizi – 2” Ankasam https://www.ankasam.org/rusyanin-balkanlara-yonelik-politikasi-ve-ukrayna-krizi-2/

Erişim Tarihi 07.08.2022/

(2) Emin Arslan, “Vekalet savaşlarının Balkanlar'daki durağı: Kosova-Sırbistan” Habertürk, 03 Ağustos 2022; https://www.haberturk.com/vekalet-savaslarinin-balkanlar-daki-duragi-kosova-sirbistan-3482423/

Erişim Tarihi 07.08.2022/

(3) Farid Azizov, Büyük Güçler”in Balkanlardaki Siyasi Mücadelesi: 1990’lardan Günümüze, Trakya Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Yüksek Lisans tezi, Edirne, s.63

(4) Farid Azizov, age, s.82

(5) Hürriyet Haberler Servisi, Uzaydan Görünen Üs, 06 Nisan 2008;