Dr Marcus Papadopoulos is the publisher and editior of Politicis First, a
non-partisan publication for the UK Parliament. He holds a PhD in
Russian history and specialises in Russia and the rest of the former
Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia.
The role of the United States in the breakup of the Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia is often overlooked by people who are critical of
Washington’s intervention in the internal affairs of independent,
sovereign countries.
For it was in the former Yugoslavia that the precedent was set for
future American intervention in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo provided the launch pad for the West’s
concept of humanitarian intervention, which, in reality, is a pretext
for safeguarding and enhancing US global hegemony.
However,
intervention by Washington in the Balkans in the 1990s served a more
immediate objective for the Americans. While Otto von Bismarck, the
legendary first Chancellor of Germany, scoffed at the notion of
intervening in the Balkans, having said that the region is “not worth
the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier,” the US took a decidedly
different view on the matter.
For Washington, helping to break up Yugoslavia would not only create
client states for the US but would also, at best, keep Russia out of the
Balkans, or, at worst, limit Russian influence in the region
(historically, Russia has close connections there based on pan-Slavism
and the Orthodox faith). An American presence in the Balkans would also
allow US policy-makers to project American power beyond the region, as
Camp Bondsteel, in Kosovo, has been helping to do for nearly twenty
years now. Incidentally, it is one of the largest overseas US military
bases in the world, hosting up to seven thousand soldiers and an array
of military equipment.
Today, Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo are American client states. But the
process of Washington colonizing the Balkans is not yet complete.
Standing in the way of the US achieving full mastery over the region are
Serbia and Russia.
Throughout its history, Serbia has resisted foreign occupiers, from the
Ottoman Empire to the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the German Empire to
the Third Reich. However, since the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic, in
2000, in an election which the Americans played a decisive role in,
Serbia has begun to be colonized by the US. Today, there are NATO
supervisory offices in key Serbian institutions, from the Ministry of
Defense to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the judiciary to the civil
service. The former is all the more ironic and humiliating for Serbs
given that NATO representatives sit in the very building that NATO
partly destroyed during its bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999.
Further to that, to weaken Serbia and ensure that it does not resist the
diktats of Washington, the US encouraged and recognized Kosovo’s
unilateral declaration of independence in 2008, as well as having
instigated and overseen the fraudulent independence referendum result in
Montenegro in 2006. As a consequence of both illegal actions, Belgrade
lost control of Kosovo and Montenegro, reducing Serbia in size and in
clout.
But despite Washington’s penetration of Serbia, assisted by the European
Union, and accelerated under the current prime minister, Alexander
Vucic, more and more ordinary Serbs are coming to realize the
tremendously damaging effects of American influence in their country -
politically, economically, militarily and socially – and thus
anti-Western sentiment in Serbia is now widespread.
Buoyed by its emphatic return to the international arena, and by its
foreign policy successes in the Crimea and in Syria, Russia has begun to
show increasing interest in the Balkans. Moscow understands the
geostrategic importance of the Balkans for Russian national security
and, like Tsarist Russia is starting to capitalize on pro-Russian
sentiment in Serbia, Montenegro, the Republika Srpska (the Serb entity
of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Macedonia. And it is Macedonia that today
the US regards as constituting an effective means of keeping the
Americans in the Balkans, the Serbs down in the Balkans and the Russians
out of the Balkans.
Washington, which is actively seeking both NATO and EU membership for
Macedonia, is acutely aware that political, economic and cultural
relations between Russia and Macedonia have been steadily progressing in
recent years, demonstrated by the construction of the Holy Trinity
Russian Orthodox Church in Skopje, in 2015. That groundbreaking event
was presided over by Archbishop Stefan, the head of the Macedonian
Orthodox Church, who also blessed the site.
While Macedonia has been independent for 26 years now, it is a very
fragile country, and this is due in large part to its restless Albanian
community, which makes up a quarter of Macedonian’s population. Enter
the US.
Since the US bombed Serbia in support of the Kosovo Liberation Army, an
ethnic Albanian terrorist organization with powerful links to organized
crime, Washington has cultivated an extremely strong relationship with
Albanians in the Balkans - in Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia. US
pre-eminence in the region rests, to a large extent, on the fervent
support it receives from Albanians there (indeed, Albanians are one of
the staunchest supporters of America in the world). It is a mutually
beneficial relationship, too, as the Albanian goal of wrestling Kosovo
away from Serbia has been realized, due to the NATO bombing of Serbia
and the subsequent withdrawal by Belgrade of its army and police from
the Serbian province, while the immense political power which ethnic
Albanians in Macedonia today wield, is due to the Ohrid Agreement which
NATO imposed on Skopje in 2001, following an Albanian terrorist campaign
in the country.
Under American patronage, the foundations for a Greater Albania have
begun to take shape. And the areas which fall under a Greater Albania
include Kosovo, parts of Macedonia, such as Tetovo, the Presevo Valley
in Serbia, and parts of Montenegro, such as Malesia.
With historic ties between Serbia and Macedonia (pan-Slavism, the
Orthodox faith and a wariness of Albanian territorial ambitions in the
Balkans), and developing ties between Russia and Macedonia, and with
anti-Western sentiment rapidly increasing in Serbia, and with a
resurgent Russian on the international stage, the US has begun to take
action to preserve its dominance in the Balkans. And by what means? By
playing its trump card in the region: the Albanians.
Currently, in Macedonia, there is an internal crisis, in which the two
opposing sides are the Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov and the leader
of the opposition Zoran Zaev, who is backed by ethnic Albanian
political parties. Mr. Ivanov will not grant permission to Mr. Zaev to
form a government, rightly fearing that Albanian secessionists in
Macedonia will take advantage of this and sever links with Skopje in
pursuit of a Greater Albania.
Outside proponents of a Greater Albania have clearly demonstrated their
involvement in the crisis in Macedonia. The self-proclaimed president of
Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, has called on ethnic Albanians in Macedonia to
“take the destiny of their rights into their own hands.”
Responding to the crisis in Macedonia, the Russian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs has accused the US and EU of interfering in the internal affairs
of the country and of supporting “the Greater Albania project which
includes vast areas in a number of Balkan states.”
By Washington playing the Albanian card in Macedonia, the country could
cease to exist or could be reduced significantly in size, thus limiting
any future Russian presence there. The Albanian-dominated parts of
Macedonia could unify under a single entity and replicate what Kosovo
did: become de facto independent and then one day unilaterally declares
itself independent. That would also serve as a warning to Serbia:
namely, if the Serbs continue with their current anti-Western
sentiments, then Greater Albania could extend into Serbia, by the
Americans encouraging and arming secessionists in the Presevo Valley,
which could reduce the country even further in size.
Despite there being a new US administration, there is very little chance
of President Donald Trump changing Washington’s policy in the Balkans
and abandoning the Albanians there. Indeed, Mr. Trump demonstrated his
full support to Kosovo this February when he sent a message to the
self-proclaimed Kosovan President Thaci (a man with historical links to
organized crime) congratulating Kosovo on its so-called independence.
In the letter, the US President wrote that: “On behalf of the United
States, I am pleased to congratulate the people of Kosovo on your
independence day on February 17. The partnership between our countries
is based on shared values and common interests. A sovereign,
multi-ethnic, democratic Kosovo’s future lies in a stable and prosperous
Balkan region that is fully integrated into the international
community…We look forward to continuing our broad and deep cooperation.
Mr Trump, who, like Thaci, has links to organized crime, is not going to
relinquish America’s hold on the Balkans, for continued American
dominance of the region will help to achieve the US President’s goal of
ensuring American global power remains preeminent, together with his
pledge to increase the already bloated US defense budget and to make the
American nuclear arsenal the largest in the world.
Macedonia is the country where Washington’s determination to remain
dominant in the Balkans is beginning to play out in. The
American-Albanian alliance is a lethal one for the security and
stability of that historically volatile region. Yet, for the Americans
and the Albanians, it is a win-win situation. With the help of the
Albanians, the US will remain the leading outside power in the Balkans.
And with the help of the Americans, the Albanian goal of realizing a
Greater Albania will take another leap forward.
President Trump is starting to play Washington’s trump card - the
Albanians – in Macedonia. Making “America great again” is beginning to
take on another dimension.
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