By Frrok Çupi
“New Yugoslavia” was a joke which is still circulating in the Balkan Peninsula. Had they said “New Anatolia”, it would be more credible. What’s more, the attempts of the new “sultan” of the Empire are real and current. Meanwhile, Yugoslavia is now a forgotten creature. You could ask twenty year olds or forty year olds, for that matter, if they know anything about “Yugoslavia”…
Nothing.
But this not the only issue. Yugoslavia, being a “new” creature, it’s behind the door and it’s scary. Everyone fears the communist creature and even more, a creature like Yugoslavia, which was destroyed by the United States and Europe. Nobody knows why the famous Dayton occurred, but nobody comes close to the idea to recreate “Yugoslavia”. Not even the Serbs who are presumed as the initiators of the “New Yugoslavia”. Serbs are the first ones who cannot bear the weight of a big state which is not in Serbia. Meanwhile, we can talk differently about an ottomanization of the Balkans. The Old Empire is as far away in time as it’s near. For years now, Erdogan’s “empire” based in Ankara is trying to turn the Balkan Turkish. Washington’s and Brussels’ archives have no “Yugoslav” project for the Balkans, but they have living projects for the ottomanization of the Balkans. Every time Balkans faces crises, a part of the Ottoman strategy on the Balkans is pulled out.
In practice, we’re part of a scheme with three segments. It’s pointless that they say “you’re either with the West or with Russia”. The Turkish segment is forgotten with the purpose of covering the truth.
Meanwhile, I’m under the impression that “Russia” as a scheme is used more like blackmail than something true. Before this state, which used to be dominant in the Balkans in the past, we now have China, Turkey and Brussels.
The sad thing is that Brussels is being ranked as a third alternative and not like a first alternative for the Balkans. We must be honest and admit that Moscow of the past has not been replaced by Brussels.
The European Union looks at what is happening in the Balkans. It has no power to intervene in the Balkan issues. In the recent days, the EU official who participated in a conference of the Balkan prime ministers in Durres, said that integration is not in the agenda. EU’s Commissioner Hahn said that the priority is to organize Balkans through an agreement reached between Balkan countries. According to Hahn’s declaration, this means that we’re in the period of the fall of the Ottoman Empire, when it declared that “the Balkans will now deal with its affairs”. Meanwhile, in this case, Brussels is saying “let the Balkans go wherever it wants to go”.
Balkan governments, including the Albanian government are playing with demagogy. Sometimes they say that we’re threatened by Russia and sometimes by someone else, but they never say the truth. Even they don’t know the truth, but the least they can do is to say that they do. The summit of the prime ministers of the Balkans in Durres was an act aiming to cover the truth. Which truth? That nothing is happening, even less “New Yugoslavia” for which politicians and the media talked? There may be a “New China”, a “New Turkey”, but not a “New Yugoslavia”. This creature is as close as it’s scary and unrealizable.
Albanian governments and other governments in the Balkans applied the so called method “it’s better to do something without any value rather than do nothing”.
Meanwhile, instead of Russia, we can mention China now.
It’s been a while that China has showed great interest on the infrastructure of the Balkans, as part of the “Belt and Road”, an ambitious and multi-national program, which has become a priority for Beijing. China has made important investments in the Balkans and beyond, including a high speed railway linking Belgrade to Budapest; Adriatic’s Highway which will link Albania, Montenegro and EU members, Greece and Italy and the Port of Piraeus, which has been purchased by a Chinese company to create a sea route from Greece, through Western Balkans, into the EU markets.
In the meantime, nothing is said of China. According to the government’s propaganda, Russia is the big threat, while the EU is the Messiah. Neither one, nor the other is true. Brussels is just observing and Moscow is doing the same thing. The Albanian government hosted the summit of Durres, but it didn’t say anything to its people. Are we seeing politics which have not been voted on the move? Albanians, Bosnians, Serbs or Macedonians have not voted for some unknown regional or international policy.
Russia is investing has been investing the region for a long time. Its alliance in the domain of energy with Russia is having an impact in the Balkans.
It was said that the US is not interested in the Balkans following the arrival of president Trump in office. But this seems intentional in order for people to be less focused on America. Balkan governments are once again hiding a truth, although the United States have never lost their interest on the difficult relations in the region. The US has military interests in the Balkans, in Kosovo’s Force led by NATO and also in foreign direct investments. So far, the USA has invested 147 million USD, while the EU has promised to invest 48 million USD in case of new deals.
The question is: Is there a European dominance in the Balkans? Is there a New Yugoslavia? Or is there simply demagogy and summits to cover what even the leaders of Balkan governments or the EU don’t know!?
Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy
