By Theodore Shoebat
Nikola Selakovic, an adviser to the Serbian president, has threatened to invade and occupy Kosovo. This is happening as the US and Germany back the formation of an official Kosovo military force.
The parliament of Kosovo just agreed to form an official military force for the country. This is of course angering and concerning to the Serbs. 107 out of 120 of the Kosovo parliamentarians agreed for the establishment of a Kosovo army. Thirteen members of the parliament, mainly members of the Serbian minority, refused to appear for the vote, obviously an ominous sign of Serbian exasperation.
The next step is for the Kosovo parliament to vote on how this new army is going to be structured. Currently Kosovo has just had the Kosovo Security Force, which is meant for only emergencies and is not an official army. So this is going to obviously change the national security apparatus of Kosovo. This new army will receive the commission of “mandate to defend the country”.
The question is, to defend against what?
It was only in the late 1990s that Kosovo had a war with Serbia, and since the two countries border on each other, it seems apparent as to why this army is being made. Hence, the anger and concern of the Serbs. As a report Taz states:
“For Serbia, this “mandate” is probably the most important reason for a protest. For implicitly, the mandate officially means the possibility of defending the entire border, including those between Serbia and the Serb areas in northern Kosovo. Kosovo wants to demonstrate that it has the right to control the entire state territory, which is still not completely successful.”
There are 120,000 Serbs living in Kosovo, and Serbian leadership refuses to agree to the independence of Kosovo which, historically, was a part of Serbia. For them, the formation of a Kosovo army is a provocation. Alexander Vucic, the president of Serbia, expressed fear that this new army could be used to persecute the Serbian minority living in the north of Kosovo.
The Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin also affirmed this, and said:
“The so-called Kosovo army, made up of terrorists, is being created to attack Serbia and the Serbs. It is certainly not being created to go to war with Albania, for example, or to counter the malign influence of Montenegro in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, or to possibly stop the North Macedonian aspirations in Kosovo and Metohija. There is no other reason. Our citizens can feel reassured. They can be sure that they have absolute support of the president of the state and of the Serbian Army”
Even though Kosovo’s prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, said that “The army will never turn against any one,” the Serbian president Vucic says that the move by Kosovo has “brought [Serbia] to the edge”. Nikola Selakovic, an adviser to the Serbian president, actually went so far as to say that Serbia could actually invade and occupy Kosovo.
Vulin also brought up the massacres of Croatian Nazis during the Second World War, saying: “Serbia will never allow Storm, Jasenovac (Croat WW2 death camp for Serbs, Jews, and Roma) to be repeated, and for the destruction of our people to take place with impunity.”
The most important backer of this formation of a Kosovo army was the United States, with Washington agreeing to provide the new army with military equipment. In a statement released by the Whitehouse from President Trump, we read:
“The United States continues to contribute forces to the Kosovo Force (KFOR), led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in cooperation with local authorities, bilateral partners, and international institutions, to deter renewed hostilities in Kosovo. Approximately 530 United States military personnel are among KFOR’s approximately 4,000 personnel.”
Rose Gotemoeller, the current Deputy Secretary General of NATO, said that:
“Kosovo should continue the reforms which include the formation of professional security forces. We will continue to collaborate with Kosovo’s officials and back KFOR’s mission in Kosovo”
China and Russia have reportedly opposed this move by the United States, an opposition which has received the expressed gratitude of the Serbian president Vucic who affirmed that the US and Kosovo want to “quash” the Serbs, but that he will not allow it.
Other NATO countries have expressed concern over the Kosovo army. The office of Federica Mogherini released a statement that the mandate of Kosovo’s current security force “should only be changed through an inclusive and gradual process in accordance with Kosovo Constitution.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg did not express enthusiasm and said that Kosovo’s move was “ill-timed” and that the start of the army transition “was made despite the concerns expressed by NATO.”
But, not surprisingly, Germany is backing Kosovo to have its own military force. Germany’s foreign ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said: “Kosovo, as a sovereign state, has the right to create regular armed forces”.
The reason for Germany’s support for Albania has everything to do with geopolitical goals of hegemony over the Balkans. As we have said many times before, the Germans wanted to control the Balkans in the First World War, and during the Second World War the Nazis backed the Albanians against the Serbs. This policy was repeated in the 1990s when the Germans armed and trained Albanian nationalists to fight the Serbs. Roger Fallgot, in his 1998 article published for the European, explains:
“German civil and military intelligence services have been involved in training and equipping the rebels with the aim of cementing German influence in the Balkan area. (…) The birth of the KLA in 1996 coincided with the appointment of Hansjoerg Geiger as the new head of the BND (German Secret Service). (…) The BND men were in charge of selecting recruits for the KLA command structure from the 500,000 Kosovars in Albania.”
Now, the Austrian government is pushing for Albania to be included in the EU. Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s chancellor and one of the idols of American nationalists, said: “We certainly support all Western Balkan countries, including Albania, in their path toward the European Union … We would like to see reforms. There are several EU member countries who are critical on a few things, due to the situation inside these countries. But we support Albania and the countries of Western Balkans in their aspiration to become part of the EU”.
This is being pushed while Germany is working on its pan-European military plan, in which Germany will lead the militaries of other European governments. If Albania is added, that means that Albanian soldiers will be fighting under German hegemony. This is the next reich, with this Muslim and non-Muslim auxiliaries.
We also should keep in mind that the Germans and Austrians have actually talked about expanding their border patrols into the Balkans. As Deutsche Welle reports:
“Having met with Chancellor Angela Merkel last night, Kurz had a Wednesday appointment with Merkel’s increasingly uneasy Bavarian conservative ally in the interior ministry.
Kurz and Seehofer announced that part of the plan would be putting German and Austrian police into Albania to prevent a migration route into the Balkans.”
What is happening here? Is this truly about ‘border security,’ or is it about hegemony? Time will truly tell. But if history rhymes, then I fear that we will be hearing a very similar song in the future.
It looks like NATO is working a provocation in the Balkans. If this happens, it will be to the advantage of the Germans and the Turks. The former will want control of Serbia, Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo; and the latter, while having an interest in the whole of the Balkans, will have a strong focus on Macedonia as a foothold into the region. During the Second Balkan War, the Serbs, Greeks and Montenegrins fought against the Bulgarians over territory. The highest concentration of fighting was over Macedonia. The Ottoman Empire got involved in that conflict, joining the Balkan alliance against Bulgaria. The Ottomans were simply taking advantage of a bad situation. If conflict breaks out in the Balkans, the wolves, smelling blood, will be on the hunt.
During the recent tensions between Macedonia and Greece over the name of Macedonia (the Greeks believe that the true Macedonia is in northern Greece), Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared his support for Macedonia against Greece. “For us, Ankara and Skopje have no differences and we will never leave our brothers alone, we will always be with them, and we will always help and stand behind them,” the Turkish president said. Turkey wants there to be conflict so as to take advantage of any bloody torrent to advance her own power interests. The same can be said for Germany. “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” (Mark 13:8)