The peace policy promoted by the Albanian government in our two republics must not be naive in the face of Serbia’s objectives, namely its preparations to return to Kosovo, through the occupation of the north. Even less should the West be naïve to Belgrade’s attitudes.
Geostrategic and political interests based on religion on the one hand and human rights are generally in conflict or, in particular circumstances, subordinated to each other.
The maintenance of peace and the implementation of universal human rights are the basis of the concept of Kosovar foreign policy. In the current government’s master plan, both objectives are highlighted. Both objectives are necessary: war leads to the most serious violations of human rights. That is why, in numerous interviews with the two leaders of our Republic – the President and the Prime Minister, the risk of bringing war to this part of our continent has been emphasized, since the Serbian governments have been constantly planning the Serbia’s military return to Kosovo.
And where geostrategy dominates and the myth of geopolitics is superimposed on human rights, human rights are massively violated and peace is in danger.
In general, proponents of a largely peace-oriented foreign policy prefer to argue from a geopolitical point of view. They place the conflict zones in the context of a struggle for world domination (United States against China) and for the protection of geostrategic interests (NATO enlargement towards the East, New Silk Road).[1]
The positioning of Kosovo and Albanians in general as a nation alongside the Western bloc has given new tones to the foreign policy of Kosovo and Albanians in general. In this realignment, especially as a product of the war in Ukraine, the imposed political system that imposed itself on our Republic through the imposition of the Ahtisaari plan is coming to an end.
In this era of profound geopolitical changes, our society is predisposed to take great strides towards change, especially since the fear of our northern neighbor in the face of this change imposed on us – affects the course of history between the two nations (as in the years 1878, 1913, 1944 and 1998/99) and quite often these clashes which were accompanied by the recycling of the Serbian genocide against the Albanians for a full quadruple at the risk of provoking an international conflict.
Meanwhile, the tendency to recycle history to the detriment of Albanians is showing up in Belgrade.
The instrumentalization of the Serbian minority in Kosovo, with particular emphasis on that of the north of the Republic, is further proof of this, in addition to the permanent arming of the Serbs and the alignment of Serbia with Putinist Russia.
Escalation of the situation in the north – casus belli
The basic reason why the situation has worsened in northern Kosovo and why the Serbian List has been withdrawn from central and northern institutions (in the four northern municipalities) has meanwhile been made public.
Serbian analyst Sonja Biserko, within twenty-four hours of this situation, on the dramatic surface, believed that the situation in northern Kosovo was created by Belgrade to avoid a serious agreement with Kosovo, in particular the Franco-German plan . [2]
The Franco-German plan [3] provides for the solution of problems in several stages; it also provides for the recognition of Kosovo by the five EU Member States which do not currently recognize it: Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia, thus paving the way for Kosovo’s accession to NATO.
The removal from the Serbian List of Institutions is meanwhile being used by Belgrade as a casus belli.
Thus, Belgrade, with these actions, openly provokes at least one Blickrieg, respectively claims to use it as justification for the new Albanian-Serb war.
In the interview she gave to the show #KallxoPernime, Biserko spoke in the clearest possible language, highlighting the instrumentalization of Kosovo Serbs by Belgrade, as well as the manipulation of public opinion public in Serbia by the government and its media and no less by the clero-fascist opposition.
This act is part of the scenario led by the Serbian president, it is pure manipulation, concludes Ms. Biserko. “This whole question of signs…is a minor problem, it’s not a real problem why the Serbs are withdrawing from the institutions. It’s an action towards…SEPARATION from Kosovo.
This action, also warned in the analyzes and comments of our researchers published on this portal of the GHJ, was and remains within the framework of the Serbo-Russian efforts, quite similar to what Russia applied in Ukraine, Donbask, etc.
But the measured counter-action of the Kosovo government and the coordination of these actions with our natural allies (first with the United States, Great Britain and Germany), is the greatest contribution to the eve of the decisions historical – and this was connected with complete neutralization of the effect of the Serbian list.
As a political force, this deeply incriminated structure, as we know, is the product of the agreement of April 19, 2013, signed by the respective former prime ministers – Hashim Thaçi and Ivica Daciq.
It is no coincidence that they were both in charge of the project, which the Serbian side described as “razgraniçenje” (redefinition of borders), while the Albanian side (the Rama-Thaçi duo) described it as an “exchange of territories”!
It seems that Thaçi’s meeting with Putin (2018), clearly coordinated by the Serbian and Russian services, would mark a major turning point in American diplomacy. The creation of a real alibi which would serve Putin on the eve of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, using the case of Kosovo (the annexation of the north in exchange for certain districts of Presheva!), will serve for urgent actions of the American side.
The subsequent flow is known.
The use of the Serbian List and the Northern Serbs as the last wild card for a possible division of the North is linked to the concept of lie and truth in Serbian political and diplomatic semantics.
“For the Serbs, the greatest enemy is the truth”, declared the well-known Jewish publicist, Leo Freundlich, and concluded that it is exactly this, that is to say “the truth, which puts their existence in danger “.
Meanwhile, through the political act of blackmail that it undertook last week, by boycotting the institutions, the Serbian List, as an instrument of the Serbian president, has taken the second step which first calls for the destabilization of the Republic and then the imposition of the “Community of Municipalities with a Serb majority”, as a first step towards the separation, respectively the annexation of the north of Kosovo.
The Serbian side, pro forma, to hide the truth, linked this act to the decision on the issue of license plates. Belgrade’s action to make secession a legitimate right to the physical existence of Serbs in northern Kosovo has, again, nothing to do with Serb citizens. In fact, this action has a pronounced geostrategic and geoeconomic character. First, securing the support of Belgrade’s EU allies to trade Serbia’s “separation” from Russian influence with their support for territorial gains at the expense of the Albanians, in particular the right to gradual annexation of northern Kosovo, known for its rich mineral wealth and Lake Uman, as an exceptional geo-economic asset.
The second concerns the possible revision of the position of a neighborhood of EU states in relation to NATO’s intervention in the historic bombardment of Serbia for 78 days (March-June 1999). All this in order to change the Serbian position in relation to Russia, to make it easier for it to move Serbia to the side of the Western bloc.
In this revisionist positioning of the policy of a neighborhood of European states in relation to the position they had, or which was imposed on you, in the spring of 1999, it further endangers peace and prosperity in the Balkans Westerners.
Brussels, respectively the head of EU foreign policy, Josep Borrell, in the face of the new developments in northern Kosovo, reacted using the invention of European diplomacy – the symmetry of guilt! With this behavior, European diplomacy recalls the famous fables of La Fontaine, whose main characters are sometimes the wolf and the donkey, sometimes the wolf and the lamb.
The time has come for Western diplomacy to understand that Serbia, with its subversive acts in northern Kosovo, which have meanwhile resulted in open political blackmail and military threats, is entirely at the service of Putin, causing a new war front in this part of Europe. Serbia uses the license plate pretext, treating it as a casus belli.
Why did the Ahtisaari plan fail?
But the spectacular action of the Belgrade official, even warning of an escalation of the situation and military intervention in northern Kosovo, seems to have ended the status quo on the ground, highlighting the weaknesses of our political system which rested on the ground with that of promoting the Ahtisaari Plan.
Why can the Ahtisaari plan already be called a failure?
It was, as is known, written by the honorable former President of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, and aimed to provide a stable political system for the youngest republic of the old continent. A little similar to that of Germany.
Until now, this system was claimed to be perfectly in line with European interests to ensure peace and stability in the region. As such, they had supported the Western powers which had supported the NATO intervention (1999) then recognized the independence of Kosovo (2008), the fruit of this plan.
The war in Ukraine, in particular the Russian project for the destabilization of Europe, as well as the Serbian project for the destabilization of the Western Balkans, mainly Kosovo and Bosnia, show that the system put in place, on the basis of the plan of Ahtisaari, is coming to an end.
Through this plan, the Republic of Kosovo was conceived by Westerners and accepted by the local political factor as a compromise in relation to the right to unification of the Albanian nation.
Serbia’s insistence on annexing northern Kosovo should be enough to reconsider this position and accelerate progress towards the creation of the Albanian Federation, the only solution guaranteeing the security, peace, stability and economic prosperity of the region.
The peace policy promoted by the Albanian governments in our two republics must not be naive in the face of Serbia’s objectives, namely its preparations to return to Kosovo, through the occupation of the north. Even less should the West be naïve to Belgrade’s attitudes.
Therefore, Western politicians should consider NATO’s collision with the Serbian army on the territory of Kosovo, which cannot remain only within its borders, as entirely possible, if Serbia must at all costs to be separated from Russian influence. Therefore, this confrontation must be carried and will conclude in Belgrade.
*Dr. Sadri Ramabaja, Executive Director of the Albanian Institute of Geopolitics / Professor of Diplomacy and National Security Practice, ILIRIA University / Republic of Kosovo.
Footnotes :
1. https://www.ipg-journal.de/regionen/global/artikel/nicht-zu-trennen-6300/?utm_campaign=de_40_20221108&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter
2. https://kallxo.com/lajm/zhvillimet-ne-veriun-e-kosoves-ne-syte-e-analistes-serbe-nga-beogradi-sonja-biserko-video/
3. https://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement/news/leak-franco-german-plan-to-resolve-the-kosovo-serbia-dispute/
