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Kosovo And The Caucasus: A Domino Effect

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  • Kosovo And The Caucasus: A Domino Effect

    KOSOVO AND THE CAUCASUS: A DOMINO EFFECT

    In Serbia, Serbia
    Dec 5 2013

    After February 2008 when Kosovo Albanian-dominated Parliament
    proclaimed Kosovo independence (without organizing a referenda)
    with obvious US diplomatic support (unilateral recognition) with
    explanation that the Kosovo case is unique in the World (i.e., it will
    be not repeated again) one can ask the question: is the problem of the
    southern Serbian province of Kosovo-Metochia really unique and surely
    unrepeatable in some other parts of the World as the US administration
    was trying to convince the rest of the international community?

    Domino effect

    The consequences of recognition of Kosovo independence by one (smaller)
    part of the international community are already (and going to be in the
    future) visible primarily in the Caucasus because of the very similar
    problems and situation in these two regions. At the Caucasus region
    (where some 50 different ethnolinguistic groups are living together)
    a self-proclaimed state independence is already done by Abkhazia
    and South Ossetia only several months after the self-proclaimed
    independence of the "Republic of Kosova", following the pattern
    of both the Nagorno-Karabakh (formally a province in Azerbaijan)
    in 1991 and Kosovo in 2008.

    The experts from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed in
    2007 their real fear that in the case of the USA and the EU unilateral
    recognition of Kosovo independence the same unilateral diplomatic
    act could be implied by Moscow by recognition of Abkhazia and South
    Ossetia as a matter of diplomatic compensation and as a result of
    domino effect in international relations. It is also known and from
    official OSCE sources that Russian delegates in this pan-European
    security organization have been constantly warning before 2008 the West
    that such scenario is quite possible, but with one peculiarity: from
    2007 they stopped to mention possibility of the Russian recognition of
    the Nagorno-Karabakh's self-proclaimed independence (on September 2nd,
    1991). It is most probably for the reason that Moscow does not want
    (up to now) to deteriorate good relations with Azerbaijan - a country
    with huge reserves of natural gas and oil.

    Why the South Ossetia could be different?

    On the first glance it can be said that the Orthodox South Ossetians
    are equally separatist as the Muslim Kosovo Albanians. However,
    the South Ossetians are having sympathies towards the Serbs (not for
    the reason that both of them are the Orthodox Christians), but not
    towards, as we could expect, separatist Kosovo Albanians. The real
    reason of such sympathies is similar legal state rights applied by
    both the Serbs in Kosovo and the South Ossetians.

    Historically, the South Ossetia was never really integral and authentic
    part of sovereign Georgian state, in contrast to Kosovo-Metochia
    which was not only integral, but culturally and politically the
    most important region of the medieval Serbian state (called as the
    Ancient Serbia or Serbia proper) till 1455 when Kosovo-Metochia became
    occupied by the Ottomans. The present-day territory of Georgia was
    never before it entered Russia a firmly united state territory in
    contrast to Serbia which before it lost independence in 1459 was
    having a long period of experience of the unified state territory
    with Kosovo-Metochia as its center.

    When Serbia de facto regained its independence from the Ottoman Empire
    at the beginning of the 19th century (de iure confirmed by the European
    Great Powers at the Berlin Congress in 1878) it was known for her
    rulers and politicians which historical territories belonged to her
    with Kosovo-Metochia on the first place. The present day territory
    of Georgia entered the Russian Empire in parts - segment by segment.

    Ossetia as united territory (i.e., not divided into the Northern and
    the Southern Ossetia as today situation is) became (according to the
    Russian historiography) voluntarily part of the Russian Empire in
    1774. In the other words, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great
    (1762â~H'1796), in order to be surely convinced that the Ossetians
    are really independent, before incorporation of this province into the
    Russian Empire sent a special commission which informed St. Petersburg
    that "the Ossetians are free people subordinated to no one".

    Georgia itself became part of the Russian Empire in 1804 (27 years
    later then Ossetia). This fact is the most important argument used
    by the South Ossetians in their dispute with the Georgian authorities.

    The Southern part of Ossetia was given to be administered by Georgia
    only in the USSR by decision of three Georgian Communists - J. V.

    Stalin, Sergei Ordzonikidze and Avelj Enukindze. It has to be also
    stressed that the border between two parts of Ossetia (the Northern
    and the Southern) never existed before 1994.

    Regarding the Kosovo Albanian case, it is known that the Albanians
    started to settle themselves in the region of Kosovo-Metochia from
    the present-day Northern Albania only after the First Serbian Great
    Migration from the region in 1689, i.e., before the Ottoman occupation
    of Serbia there were no Albanians in Kosovo-Metochia in any significant
    number (only 2% according to the Ottoman census in 1455).

    It should be also said that, according to several Byzantine and Arab
    sources, the Balkan Albanians are originating from the Caucasus
    Albania - in the 9th century they left the Caucasus and have been
    settled by the Arabs in the West Sicily (and the South Italy) which
    they left in 1043 and came to the Balkans.

    The borders of Kosovo-Metochia were established for the first time
    by the Yugoslav Communist authorities in 1945, who in fact separated
    this province from the rest of Serbia together with the Province of
    Vojvodina. In addition, the Yugoslav Communist People's Assembly
    issued the decree according to which it was forbidden for about
    100.000 expelled Serbs from Kosovo-Metochia during the Second World
    War by the Albanian authorities to return back to the province. That
    was the beginning of a great change of the population structure of
    the province in the Albanian favour in the Socialist Yugoslavia.

    The people of the South Ossetia on the referendum about the future
    of the USSR on March 17th, 1991 voted for existence of the Soviet
    Union (like the Serbs upon Yugoslavia, but and Kosovo Albanians on
    referendum to become an independent from Serbia like Georgians from
    the USSR). The referendum on March 17th, 1991 was organized two months
    after Georgian army started the war against the South Ossetia in which
    till September of the same year 86 Ossetian villages have been burned.

    It is calculated that more than 1.000 Ossetians lost their lives
    and around 12.000 Ossetians emigrated from the South to the North
    (Russia's) Ossetia. This is the point of similarity with expelled
    around 250.000 Serbs from Kosovo by the Albanian the so-called Kosovo
    Liberation Army after the NATO peace-keeping troops entered and de
    facto occupied this province in June 1999.

    A state independence of the Republic of South Ossetia was proclaimed
    on May 29th, 1992. However, this legal act has not been understood
    as a "separatist" one for the reason that at that time Georgia was
    not recognized by no one state in the world as an independent one and
    Georgia was not a member of the United Nations. However, in contrast
    to the case of the South Ossetia, the unilateral proclamation of
    the state independence of Kosovo by Albanians on February 18th, 2008
    cannot be treated by the international community as a legitimate act
    (without permission by Belgrade) as Kosovo by the international law
    and agreements is an integral part of Serbia (the same legal reason was
    applied by the international community to the case of self-proclaimed
    the Republic of Serbian Krayina in 1991 from Croatia).

    Differently from the case of Georgia, when the South Ossetia proclaimed
    the state independence in May 1992, Serbia in 2008, when the Albanian
    dominated Parliament of Kosovo proclaimed the state independence,
    was an internationally recognized independent state and a member of
    the United Nations. This is a common point of similarity between the
    Ossetians and the Serbs as the nations: both of them are fighting
    against separation of one part of their national body and the land
    from the motherland. However, Tbilisi is doing the same like Belgrade,
    from this point of view, i.e. claiming that the South Ossetia (and
    Abkhazia) is historical and state part of Georgia. In this point, there
    is a similarity between political claims of both states - Serbia and
    Georgia with one significant difference: historical rights of Serbia
    over Kosovo-Metochia are much more stronger in comparison with the same
    rights of Georgia over the South Ossetia (and Abkhazia). In the other
    words, Kosovo-Metochia was all the time, from historical, cultural,
    state and identity point of views, a central/proper part of Serbia,
    while both the South Ossetia and Abkhazia have been just borderland
    provinces of Georgia.

    International system of governing and separation

    The main argument for the western politicians upon Kosovo independence,
    as "unique case" of Kosovo situation, is the fact that according
    to "Kumanovo Agreement" between MilosheviÄ~G's Serbia and the NATO
    signed on June 10th, 1999, and the UN Resolution of 1244 (following
    this agreement), Kosovo is put under the UN protectorate with
    imposed international system of governing and security. However,
    such "argument" does not work in the case of the South Ossetia as
    the Ossetians are governing their land by themselves and much more
    successfully in comparison with "internationally" (i.e., the NATO)
    protected Kosovo.

    It was quite visible in March 2004 when international organizations
    and military troops could not (i.e., did not want to) protect the
    ethnic Serbs in Kosovo-Metochia from violent attacks organized by
    the local Albanians when during three days (March 17â~H'19th) 4.000
    Serbs exiled, more than 800 Serbian houses are set on fire and 35
    Serbian Orthodox churches and cultural monuments were destroyed or
    being severely damaged.

    The "March Pogrom" of 2004 revealed the real situation in the
    region of Kosovo-Metochia. The position of the South Ossetians in
    an independent Georgia from 1991 to August 2008 could be compared
    with position of the Serbs in Kosovo-Metochia after June 1999 under
    the total Albanian domination. The fact is that the South Ossetia,
    Abkhazia and Pridnestrovje showed much more political-legal bases and
    capabilities to be recognized as an independent for the reason that
    they showed real ability to govern themselves by only themselves,
    but not by the international organizations as it is in the case of
    the Albanian-governed Kosovo (the "Republic of Kosova" from February
    2008) after June 1999 up today. They also proved much more democracy
    and respect for human and minority rights in comparison with the
    Albanian-ruled Kosovo.

    The Nagorno-Karabakh and Kosovo

    There are several similarities, but also and dissimilarities between
    conflicts in the Nagorno-Karabakh and Kosovo. In both cases the
    international community is dealing with autonomy of a compact national
    minority who is making a majority on the land in question and having
    its own national independent state out of this territory. Both the
    Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and the Kosovo Albanians do not want
    to accept any other solution except separation and internationally
    recognized independence. Both conflicts are in fact continuations
    of old historic struggles between two different civilizations: the
    Muslim Turkish and the Christian Byzantine. In both conflicts the
    international organizations are included as the mediators. Some of
    them are the same - France, the USA and Russia as the members of both
    Contact Groups for ex-Yugoslavia and the Minsk Group under the OSCE
    umbrella for Azerbaijan.

    Serbia and Azerbaijan were against that their cases (Kosovo and the
    Nagorno-Karabakh) will be proclaimed as the "unique" cases as in
    this case it would be a green light to both Albanian and Armenian
    separatists to secede their territories from Serbia and Azerbaijan
    without permissions given by Belgrade and Baku (what in reality
    already happened).

    However, there are significant differences between Kosovo-Metochia
    and the Nagorno-Karabakh cases. Firstly, Kosovo-Metochia was internal
    conflict within Serbia (which is after June 1999 internationalized),
    but in the case of the Nagorno-Karabakh there is external military
    aggression (by Armenia). Secondly, in difference to Armenia in
    relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh, Albania formally never accepted
    any legal act in which Kosovo was called as integral part of a state
    territory of Albania (with historical exception during the Second
    World War when Kosovo-Metochia, the Eastern Montenegro and the Western
    Macedonia have been included into Mussolini's the so-called "Greater
    Albania"). Delegation from Albania did not take any participation in
    the talks and negotiations upon the "final" status of Kosovo-Metochia
    between Prishina and Belgrade in 2007â~H'2013, while Armenia has
    official status of "interested side" in the conflict in regard to
    the Nagorno-Karabakh.

    However, the Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh such status did not
    obtain. While the Armenian army (i.e. from the Republic of Armenia) was
    directly involved in the military operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh,
    officially part of an independent state of Azerbaijan, in the Kosovo
    conflict of 1998â~H'1999 the official regular army of the Republic
    of Albania was not involved (differently from a great number of
    the volunteers from Albania). As a result, Armenia occupied 1/5 of
    Azerbaijan territory and the victims of ethnic cleansing are only
    the Azerbaijani. A military weaker Azerbaijan side in comparison to
    Armenia, which was supported by Russia in arms and other war material,
    did not apply to the NATO for the military help, but military weaker
    Kosovo Albanian side in comparison to Serbia's police and the Yugoslav
    army forces did it during the Kosovo conflict of 1998â~H'1999.

    Conclusion

    It can be concluded that the Albanian unilaterally proclaimed Kosovo
    independence in February 2008 is not "unique" case in the world without
    direct consequences to similar separatist cases following the "domino
    effect" (the South Ossetia, the South Sudan...). That is the real
    reason why, for instance, the government of Cyprus is not supporting
    "Kosovo Albanian rights to self-determination" as the next "unique"
    case can be easily the northern (Turkish) part of Cyprus which is
    by the way already recognized by the Republic of Turkey and under de
    facto Ankara's protection and the occupation by the regular army of
    the Republic of Turkey from 1974 onward.

    The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely
    those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of InSerbia.

    http://inserbia.info/news/2013/12/kosovo-and-the-caucasus-a-domino-effect/

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