Washington Could Force Kosovo Recognition Onto Greece And Other EU States

greekcitytimes.com

Washington Could Force Kosovo Recognition Onto Greece And Other EU States - Greek City Times

Paul Antonopoulos

5-6 minutes

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The U.S. intends to force Serbia not to oppose Kosovo's entry into international institutions, thus imposing Belgrade to indirectly recognize the breakaway province's independence. In this way, the five EU members that have not yet recognized Kosovo's independence would be discouraged from continuing this policy.

It is in the hope of U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo, Philip S. Kosnett, that Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Romania and Slovakia will change their position on Kosovo's independence if relations between Belgrade and Pristina improve. Kosnett then compared the Kosovo issue to other disputes in the Balkans and the wider region that the U.S. has mediated in.

Kosovo recognition.

"Who would have thought that North Macedonia and Greece would reach an agreement on the name, but it did happen. People thought the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain or Sudan couldn't have relations with Israel, but it did happen," he said.

However, these are not good examples given by the American ambassador. The sovereignty of North Macedonian territory was not disputed by Greece, but rather the name of the state was. The name dispute cannot be equated with a situation where the U.S. is backing an entity trying to secede 15% of Serbian territory. Also, the three Arab states do not have their sovereignty questioned by Israel. No matter how historical the issues over Israel and the Macedonian question may be, they cannot be put on the same level as Kosovo.

Kosnett's statement, given to Dukagjin Television, was addressed to Albanians who are accustomed to unconditional American support and is characteristic of Washington's policy towards Serbia. Since the Brussels Agreement in 2013, Pristina expected the U.S. would make the five EU countries recognize Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence.

The 2013 Brussel Agreement, negotiated between former Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić and his Kosovo Albanian counterpart Hashim Thaçi, and mediated by former EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, effectively opened a path for Belgrade and Pristina to normalize their relations since the provinces illegal declaration of independence in 2008.

However, the ambassador expresses a position that is consistent with Washington's anti-Serb policy. This shows that the ultimate goal is to force Serbia to indirectly recognize the breakaway province through a comprehensive agreement and allowing it to become a member of international organizations. European countries that do not recognize Kosovo's independence would be discouraged to continue this policy. The position of the five EU member states that do not recognize its independence becomes irrelevant if Belgrade continues to allow incentives that further legitimize the Pristina government.

It is unsurprising that this attitude is being actualized on the eve of the 2020 American presidential elections. This indicates that the State Department hopes that it will become official American policy again. Although we cannot know with absolute certainty of this notion, it is indicative that Kosnett is speaking in that direction. It shows that there are strong impulses within the State Department which believes that the entire dispute and the relations between Belgrade and Pristina can be resolved by forcing Serbia to accept Kosovo's independence.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić meeting with Donald Trump in the White House earlier this year.

There is a disproportion in Kosnett's statement between what the American ambassador would like to happen and the actual reality. Some of the EU countries would not recognize Kosovo even if Serbia reached an agreement to implicitly recognize the existence of an independent state in its own territory. But countries that do not have an immediate problem with their own territorial integrity would find themselves in an awkward position to defend their non-recognition if Belgrade is opening up to it.

Greece and Cyprus would probably not recognize Kosovo's independence so long as Turkey continues occupying northern Cyprus. Spain too is dealing with several separatist movements, including in Catalonia, Basque and Galicia, and will also unlikely change their position on Kosovo. However, if Belgrade allows the breakaway province to be admitted into international organizations, there is a possibility that Romania and Slovakia could be open to recognizing the separatist province's independence.

It all depends on the position of Belgrade, its strength to resist pressure and to find a long-term solution in negotiations with Pristina with the help of international mediators and within the bounds of international law. The possibly of Belgrade recognizing Kosovo would undo three years of diplomatic manoeuvring that has resulted in 20 countries withdrawing their recognition for the separatist province. As of today, 98 out of 193 countries recognize Kosovo's independence after the withdrawal of the 20 countries. None-the-less, pressure is beginning to mount against Belgrade, and if it capitulates, the very few remaining EU countries that do not recognize Kosovo may begin doing so.

 

Biden's Appeal To Bosnian Muslim And Albanian Voters Is Aimed Against Serbia And Russia

greekcitytimes.com

Biden's Appeal To Bosnian Muslim And Albanian Voters Is Aimed Against Serbia And Russia - Greek City Times

Paul Antonopoulos

6-8 minutes

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U.S. Democrat Presidential Candidate Joe Biden has been on a whirlwind campaign in an attempt to defeat President Donald Trump in next month's election. Published policy papers has shown Biden's strong support for Greece, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Albania and Kosovo as he seeks to win over millions of diaspora votes.

The candidate has taken a very strong anti-Turkey position in his bid to win over Armenian and Greek diaspora voters at a time when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan makes daily threats of war against Greece and is directly sponsoring, arming and facilitating the Azerbaijani invasion of Artsakh, or more commonly known as Nagorno-Karabakh.

However, away from Greece and into the heart of the Balkans, Biden is also appealing to the greatest enablers of Turkish expansionism into the region – BiH, Albania and Kosovo.

If Biden wins next month's presidential elections, there will be no sudden changes in America's foreign policy, besides perhaps a stronger position against Erdoğan compared to Trump's "bromance" with the Turkish president.

To empower U.S. positioning in the Balkans, Biden wants to resurrect policies from the 1990's that resulted in poverty, ethnic cleansing and war in the region.

In a letter to the Bosnian Muslim diaspora in the U.S., entitled "Joe Biden's vision for America's relationship with Bosnia and Herzegovina," the Democrat said he is "a proven friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina – from the country's darkest days of war and genocide to the continued struggle for stability and justice."

Biden's letter highlighted that as senator he was a key player "to stop [Serbian leader] Slobodan Milosevic's brutal campaign of genocide." It also highlighted that "Biden knows that for Bosnia and Herzegovina to succeed, it will need the steadfast support of the United States" and that as president he will convene "European Union partners and NATO allies to jointly develop a strategy for anchoring the Western Balkans in Euro-Atlantic institutions."

Most interestingly, in the letter, the presidential candidate notes that "Unfortunately, under President Trump, U.S. influence in the region has faded as the administration has cast the European Union as a strategic adversary and questioned the value of the NATO alliance." It has been well established that Trump has taken a greater disinterest in Balkan issues compared to his predecessors.

In another letter entitled "Joe Biden's Vision for U.S. Relations with Albania and Kosova," the presidential candidate said that he "is a long-time friend of Albania and Kosova and the Albanian-American community. As President, he will continue to support Albania's security, and democratic and economic development in the region. Biden understands the important role played by NATO and the threats to the region posed by Russia."

It is clear from his addresses to the Bosnian Muslim and Albanian diaspora communities in the U.S. that a Biden administration will play a more active role in the Balkans to contain Russian influence in the region by pressurizing Serbia.

If Biden defeats Trump, new pressure will be created against the Serbian dominated entity, the Republika Srpska. The Republika Srpska is one of the two entities comprising of BiH, with the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina which comprises mostly of Bosnian Muslims and Croats.

Biden's policies indicate that the Serbs will be pressured into accepting NATO and into accepting Sarajevo as the centralized political center for BiH, thus taking away even more liberties and autonomy from the Republika Srpska.

Effectively, if Biden is successful in the upcoming elections, what the Bosnian Muslims want could be achieved – the complete integration of BiH into the Euro-Atlantic agenda by being absorbed into NATO and the EU, thus eliminating most of Russia's influence in the region.

The fact that nearly 25 years has passed since the signing of the Dayton Agreement, which formulated the two-entity system of BiH, without settling deep seeded problems in the untenable system, is a testament to the failure of the U.S. experiment in the Balkans.

Biden's strong backing for further integrating the Balkans into NATO and the European Union will certainly affect the Serbian electorate in America, who were not strong supporters of Trump either.  This will likely steer Serbian-Americans into voting for Trump, however, their community is smaller than the Albanian and Bosnian Muslim diaspora in the U.S.

Although such letters may flatter the Albanian and Bosnian Muslim diaspora, two important factors remain – it is more than likely Biden will not be elected, and, will his policy ambitions come to fruition?

Although the U.S.-led NATO was highly successful in dismantling Yugoslavia in the 1990's, the geopolitical situation is vastly different today. Russia in the 1990's, led by the famously incompetent Boris Yeltsin, was a shadow of the previous Soviet Union.

It is highly unlikely that Russia would be willing to military intervene in any future conflicts in the Balkans, but it will certainly be a lot more proactive diplomatically and materially in the Balkans then what it was after the fall of the Soviet Union.

What Biden also does not acknowledge is that within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the second entity comprising of BiH, there are strained relations between the co-ruling Bosnian Muslims and Croats. Whereas they were once allied against the Serbs, the Croats are now demanding more autonomy that the Bosnian Muslims are unwilling to give.

Meanwhile, there are greater numbers of countries withdrawing their recognition of Kosovo's independence. Washington's second experiment in the Balkans, Kosovo, again finds itself problematic as it has become a European hub for drug trafficking, human trafficking and organ harvesting.

Assuming a Biden victory, his hopes of turning the Balkans completely into a bastion of Euro-Atlantic dominance devoid of Russian influence will unlikely come to fruition. Although the Democrat may give rhetoric on the success of the BiH and Kosovo experiments, both are failed states with little economic, infrastructural or developmental prospects for the future.

However, perhaps this is exactly how Biden wants these entities to be – volatile points that could explode at any moment and put Serbia under pressure.

greekcitytimes.com

Serbia finally recognizes Kosovo border by staffing Common Border Crossing Point at Merdare

gazetaexpress.com

Serbia finally recognizes Kosovo border by staffing Common Border Crossing Point at Merdare - Gazeta Express

English Gazeta Express 14/10/2020 18:18

3 minutes

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Serbia finally recognizes Kosovo border by staffing Common Border Crossing Point at Merdare

14/10/2020 18:18

It took Serbia nine years to finally implement the Integrated Border Management deal in full by operationalizing the Merdare Common Border Crossing Point. Functionalization of the border crossing was part of the accord between Kosovo and Serbia on economic normalization signed at the White House on September 4.

Back in 2011 Pristina and Belgrade signed the Agreement on Integrated Border Management (IBM) as part of the EU-facilitated dialogue with parties agreeing to build permanent border crossings between the two countries enabling authorities of both countries work under one roof.

When the agreement was signed Kosovo side claimed that with the IBM Agreement Serbia has accepted Kosovo's Independence, whereas Serbian side insisted that the IBM does not mean recognition of Kosovo and continued referring to the border crossings as administrative lines.

Although the Common Border Point facility at Merdare financed by the EU was finalized last year, Serbian side refused to use the new facility with the Serbian police and customs still working in temporarily facilities. But Serbian side finally agreed to move its staff at the new facilities. The move was welcomed by the US Government and President Donald Trump's special envoy on Dialogue, Richard Grenell. "Big move. Thanks to President Donald Trump, Serbia makes Merdare border crossing operational," Grenell wrote on Twitter. Ambassador Grenell was retweeting a statement of the US Ambassador to Belgrade, Anthoney Godfrey who on Tuesday called Serbia's move as great news. "By staffing Merdare, Serbia will help grow regional trade and commerce, which is at the heart of the September 4 agreements signed at the White House. This is an important step forward for prosperity and stability" Godfrey wrote. Also, a spokesperson of the US State Department Wednesday applauded the move.

The Kosovo Police told Gazeta Express that its police and customs officers have staffed the new facility long time ago. "The Kosovo Police have already moved to the new facility and are carrying out their duties in accordance with the law," a police spokesperson said. Work on the first permanent crossing point between Kosovo and Serbia, financed by the EU, started in 2017, but Serbian side has continuously refused to staff the common crossing point. /GazetaExpress/

 

It is time to prosecute Julian’s persecutors – The Belmarsh Tribunal

It is time to prosecute Julian's persecutors – The Belmarsh Tribunal

DiEM25 English Julian Assange PROGRESSIVE INTERNATIONAL Talks Video webmaster YanisVaroufakis 2730 Views 0 comment 04/10/2020

This is the time to change tack. We have spent too long defending an innocent man for leaking power's guilty secrets. We have protested too long against their right to destroy Julian's body so as to silence his voice. We have pleaded for too long for them to stop torturing a man who dared reveal to us crimes our governments are perpetrating , on our behalf, behind our backs. We have spent too long warning the good people out there who can't be bothered that first they came for Assange, then they will come for others that reveal their dirty secrets, and that eventually there will be no one to defend them – no one to defend those who, today, can't be bothered about Julian. We have used too much energy trying to impress journalists who fail so spectacularly to support Julian today that, in so failing, they are jeopardising their own profession, they are neutering themselves, they are allowing themselves to be added to the hit list, that they are consenting to their own emasculation.

ENOUGH!

If we are truly in the business of allowing unalloyed truth to prevail, to have the final word, we must make the transition from defending Julian, from warning against the dire consequences of his extradition for him, for us, for the world, from explaining to the apathetic that their apathy equals their powerlessness, to turning the tables on the criminals that are behind his persecution.

We must turn the current court case into a trial of those who ordered young soldiers to kill civilians, to maim and to murder journalists, to shroud whole communities in tears and in pain.

We must turn Julian's prosecutors into defendants and allow the grandest of juries out there, a well-informed Demos, to pass fair judgment on them

This is not hard to do: Thanks to Wikileaks, the evidence is at out fingertips, at everyone's disposal.

Is this not why the guilty are demanding Julian's extradition? Is this not why the murderers are plotting to entomb Julian in a supermax coffin for 175 years?

Friends, we can do it!

If Dimitrov in his trial, that took place in Nazi Germany itself, could turn the tables against Goring and Goebbels, surely, we can turn the current court case into a trial of the military-industrial-national-security complex. Noting that even the Nazi courts gave Dimitrov greater opportunity to speak in his defence than Julian has inside his glass box, we can nevertheless use what is left of liberal democracy's instruments to take the fight to his accusers with a Glorious, a Magnificent, a Righteous, a Collective WE ACCUSE YOU!

For this reason, I salute the Belmarsh Tribunal. I salute today's event. I salute all of you who are part of it either as speakers or as active observers. Above all, I salute Julian – for having sacrificed so much so that we can ACCUSE THOSE WHO TRULY DESERVE TO BE ACCUSED, as is our duty.

https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2020/10/04/it-is-time-to-prosecute-julians-persecutors-the-belmarsh-tribunal/