Косово - независимость

[Mono]

В ходе своего визита в Словению высокий представитель (еврокомиссар) ЕС по внешней политике и безопасности Хавьер Солана дал интервью субботнему приложению газеты "Дневник". Как сообщает из Любляны корреспондент белградской "Политики", главной темой беседы был вопрос о судьбе Косово и Метохии.

Хавьер Солана (фото АР)От журналистов Словении, страны-участницы Евросоюза и НАТО, Солана, вероятно, ожидал радушного приема. Однако его поджидали большие неприятности. Вопросы, заданные в Любляне, вывели чиновника из себя, он нервничал и откровенно лгал.

Интервьюер заметил Солане, что ЕС принял решение об отправке своей миссии в Косово, хотя Резолюция N1244 СБ ООН ничего не говорит о такой возможности. Корреспондент язвительно спросил, считает ли Солана, что подобное нарушение международного права это верный путь для сохранения мира и стабильности на земле. Удивленный Солана сказал: "Я не знаю, что кто-то хочет нарушить международное право. Если вы кого-то знаете, то назовите. ЕС только решил подготовить миссию, которая поможет полиции и правосудию, которая защитит церкви… Я не знаю, можно ли все это назвать нарушением международного права. Миссия будет направлена, когда это станет возможным, и это доказательство ответственности ЕС".

На просьбу прокомментировать тот факт, что "Резолюция СБ ООН N1244 говорит о необходимости защиты территориальной целостности Сербии, в то время как в отношении Косово упоминается только "широкая автономия", но вопреки этому ЕС готовится признать Косово как новое государство", Солана ответил: "ЕС работает над тем, чтобы начать осуществление своего мандата на основе Резолюции N1244".

"Ну а в чем тогда разница, скажем, между Косово и Нагорным Карабахом?", – поинтересовался журналист. Бывший генсек НАТО, начинающий заметно нервничать, пораженный неожиданными вопросами, в ответ на это заявил, что собеседник "должен знать, что происходило в прошлом в Косово" и если тот "между этим и другими примерами в мире находит какую-то связь", тогда видение журналиста на эти проблемы "очень ограничено": "Мы в ЕС пытаемся найти окончательное решение статуса Косово".

После вопросов о нерушимости границ, о Хельсинских соглашениях 1975 года, о предыдущих заявлениях о признании границ Сербии Солана окончательно запутался и заявил, что не согласен с утверждениями собеседника о том, что "если Косово провозгласит независимость в одностороннем порядке", то будет иметь место нарушение международного права, т.к. "надо было бы посмотреть, как это сделано".

Затем случился курьез, окончательно сразивший Солану. Журналист перешел к следующему вопросу: "Можете ли вы представить…" "Я все могу представить", – неожиданно прервал его еврокомиссар. Последовало продолжение: "Можете ли вы представить, что Шанхайская организация сотрудничества – Россия, Китай, Казахстан, Киргизия, Таджикистан и Узбекистан – бомбит Испанию, для того чтобы Страна басков стала независимым государством? Вы бы сказали, что в этом случае не имеет места нарушение международного права?" Ошарашенный Солана все мог представить, но только не это: "Не могу это себе представить. ШОС не военная организация".

Солана оборвал и следующий вопрос корреспондента. Журналист начал его с констатации того факта, что Солана был генсеком НАТО в 1999 году, в период натовских бомбежек Югославии. "Нет, – открыто соврал европейский дипломат, – я возглавлял НАТО с 1995 по 1998 год". Между тем известно, что Джордж Робертсон сменил Солану только в октябре 1999 года, так что бывший генсек североатлантического альянса, откровенно прикидывается, что потерял память, видно, понимая, что речь идет о серьезном преступлении. Тогда журналист снова попытался узнать у Соланы, почему же все-таки Косово это иной случай, чем все ему подобные в мире. "Иной, потому что иной", – последовал короткий "ответ".

Журналист:

- Почему многочисленные меньшинства в мире, также желающие отделиться от стран, в которых проживают, не могут этого сделать, в отличие от Косово, которому это разрешают?

Солана:

- А те народы накануне независимости очистились от других народов?

Журналист:

-То есть, получается, разница в этом – сербская этническая чистка это причина вашего решения о Косово?

Пойманный на лжи и окончательно запутавшийся Солана сказал "Спасибо за беседу" и прекратил интервью.

http://www.warandpeace.ru/ru/news/view/20044/

Солана выпей яду

[arthur]

Им насрать на нас с высокой колокольни.

[arthur]

да, чуть не забыл

Совбез ООН пора на хрен разгонять. Принятые им бумаженции могут сгодиться только в одном месте, больше нигде, как например бумаженция, на которой записана резолюция N1244

[ATOS]

Мир поменялся.

С завтрашнего дня очень многое поменяется в мире.

[Sari Galin]

Похоже что между братьями пробежала кошка.

Турция признала независимость Косово ( прецедент для северного Кипра, понимаешь ли ), а Азербайджан нет.

Со дня на день ожидайте от соседей инфу что кошку выростили в тайном дашнакском питомнике

[Sari Galin]

Armenian PM: Kosovo will boost Karabakh recognition drive

Kosovo’s independence will strengthen a bid by the Armenian-backed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh to be recognized as a state, Armenia’s Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan told Reuters in an interview.

Sarksyan drew a link between the Serbian province which will declare independence on Sunday and Nagorno-Karabakh, where ethnic Armenian separatists broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s but have failed to win international recognition. “We are getting a rather favorable position,” said Sarksyan, front-runner in the Feb. 19 Armenian presidential election. “Recognition of Kosovo’s independence can be welcomed by us. If countries recognize the independence of Kosovo and then don’t recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, we’ll think of double standards,” he said late on Saturday.

But Sarksyan, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh, said international recognition for Kosovo does not mean ... Armenia will immediately recognize the independence of Karabakh. Armenia is the breakaway region’s closest ally.

Armenia and neighbor Azerbaijan are still technically at war over Nagorno-Karabakh, a source of instability close to the route of a pipeline that pumps Caspian Sea oil to world markets. Armenia’s relations with its other neighbor Turkey are tense.

Efforts to resolve both disputes are stalled. If elected, Sarksyan is expected to leave Armenia’s approach largely unchanged. But he said: “We need to add some flexibility to our foreign policy ... I think one of the most important issues is establishing good relationships with our neighbors.”

Speaking about the fiercely-contested election, 53-year-old Sarksyan said: “I assess my chances as very good. If in the coming days nothing extraordinary happens, the election will end in just one round.” Armenia has suffered bouts of political turmoil and previous elections have been followed by mass opposition protests alleging vote-rigging. On the possibility of protests, he said: “We have state bodies to defend law and order in our country.”

Sarksyan is a close ally of President Robert Kocharyan, who is barred by the constitution from seeking re-election. Sarksyan said if he wins Tuesday’s vote Kocharyan, also 53, will continue to play a role in government, though he said he did not yet know what that would be.

18.02.2008

Reuters Yerevan

[Sari Galin]

Balkan nation divided at birth

February 18, 2008

Kosovo declares its independence from Serbia, with Turks and Albanians joining in the celebrations, while the Serb minority in the new nation is quietly contemplating its future

Barçın Yinanç

PRIZREN, Kosovo Turkish Daily News

Neither the freezing cold nor the sporadic snowfall kept Kosovo Albanians off the streets. To the contrary thousands of them have been taking to the streets since Friday in anticipation of the declaration of independence expected late yesterday afternoon.

However, not everyone is in a festive mood. Serbs, the largest minority in the province, are obviously against breaking away from Serbia. Other minorities like Turks, believed to constitute between 1.5 and 2 percent of the two million Kosovars also have some concerns as there are suspicions to what degree Kosovo will succeed in surviving as a multi ethnic state. “Personally I believe independence will be good,” said İrfan Şekerci, president of the True Path Association (TPA) in Prizren, south of Kosovo, yesterday.

The TPA's folklore dance group was finalizing its preparations yesterday morning to participate in the official festivities following the declaration of independence in Shadirvan square, right in front of the Sinan Pasha Mosque. But Şekerci confessed that there is a certain degree of concern among the Turks over the consequences of independence. “Obviously there is fear from Albanian nationalism. But Kosovo will be under international monitoring. I believe ultra nationalists will not be given a say,” said Şekerci.

The break away region from Serbia has been in a festive mood for days. Streets are decorated with Albanian flags, as the flag of the new state will not officially be in use until the declaration of independence. The double-headed eagle, on the Albanian flag is not the only figure dominating the streets in Kosovo. American and EU flags decorate not only the streets but also the windows of the shops as a token of gratitude.

The United Nations has administered Kosovo since a U.S.-led NATO bombing in 1999 drove out Serb forces accused of persecuting the province's majority ethnic Albanians.

Scores of drivers took to the streets in main towns like Pristina and Prizren honking their horns. Most cars had Albanian and U.S. flags. German and even Swiss flags could be seen in Prizren as these two countries have military contingents in KFOR, the NATO-led international force.

With the exception of the flag hanging from the Sinan Pasha Mosque, an impressive legacy of Ottoman times, the small number of Turkish flags hardly visible among the others is especially striking in a city home to 10,000 Kosovar Turks. Turkish flags were hung in Prizren only Saturday afternoon after a warning from the celebration committee of the municipality, whose deputy mayor is from the Turkish community, the Turkish Daily News learned. This is all the more striking since Turkey's support for Kosovo's independence has been unequivocal. The new flag of Kosovo was made in Turkey, and brought to Kosovo yesterday by Turkish Airlines, learned the TDN. Turkey contributed to the KFOR since its inception. In fact, the Turkish unit based in Prizren assumed command of the KFOR in the south since May. The presence of Turkish troops has given a sense of security to Kosovar Turks. But they will leave one day.

“There is a sense of uneasiness among Turks. Actually we have very good relations with the Albanians. We have the same religion, the same customs. But this also constitutes a danger since it means Albanization of Turks,” said journalist Raif Kirku

Turkish as the lingua franca

The Turkish community seems to enjoy relatively good relations with the Albanians. But it was not always the case especially in the recent past. Nowadays their first and foremost plight is to have Turkish accepted as the official language. They want back the rights they enjoyed under the 1974 constitution that recognizes Turkish as one of the three official languages in Kosovo. Turkish is the strongest characteristic that distinguishes the Turks from Albanians and thus the most important tool against natural assimilation, said Kirkul.

Turkish was in a way “lingua franca” in Kosovo, as the region was part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries. “Speaking Turkish used to be very prestigious in the past,” said Shkelzen Maliqi, editor of daily Express, an ethnic Albanian who speaks Turkish. Maliqi claimed there are at least 200,000 people in Kosovo who know Turkish. Some claim this number is around 300,000. This probably is also the result of mixed marriages between Albanians and Turks, a common phenomenon in Kosovo. But marital ties together with religious affinity also had the effect of Albanization. Religion and mixed marriages are not however the only reason behind the natural assimilation. Albanian nationalism is also an important factor.

Uneasy relationship

For years Kosovar Turks were caught between two nationalisms; one of the majority (Serbs in the federal state) and that of the major minority (Albanians). During socialist rule Turks enjoyed ample rights so that some experts even believe that the rights granted to them were disproportionate compared to the numerical strength of their population, a conscious policy of the socialist regime against the Albanians. The same policy continued during Milosevic's rule in the 1990s. “When Albanians were forced out of their jobs, most were replaced by Turks,” said an advisor to the U.N. mission in Kosovo (UNMİK). “Some Turkish leaders were given favors. They were more supportive of the Serbian regime,” said Maliqi, adding, “but it was temporary and there were only few cases like that. We cannot make a generalization.” But many do not think like Maliqi. Most accused the Turks of collaborating with the Serbian regime and opportunism. The resentment made itself felt after Serb forces left Kosovo following the NATO strikes. Claiming that there is no Turkish minority worth mentioning in Kosovo, Albanians have been also successful in influencing UNMIK which has resisted to calls from Turks to accept Turkish as the official language.

But the situation has improved since then. “We have overcome the past difficulties,” said Mahir Yağcılar, the Turkish minister in Prime Minister Hashim Taci's cabinet. “We have been supportive of the independence efforts,” he said to the TDN. But he also admitted that the expectation of recognition of Turkish as an official language in Kosovo's future constitution has not been met yet. “The status of Turkish in the constitutional framework is not satisfactory. We are working to strengthen the constitutional guarantees for the use of Turkish,” he said. For Ilır Dugolli from the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development in Pristina, the demand to have Turkish as an official language is not realistic. But the resistance to accept this demand does not stem from nationalism. “This is rather seen as an administrative hurdle,” said Dugolli, claiming that Turkish is used at local level.

Turkish is accepted as an official language in Prizren and is the working language in municipalities where a sizable number of Turks live. “What counts is the implementation,” said Güner Üreya, an advisor to Yağcılar. The Turkish community has to press for the use of the language at local levels, he said, adding there are problems in implementation. “It is natural that there could be some concern at a small level. But independence will be better for them since until now the spotlight was only upon the Albanians. Now they will have a better opportunity to defend their rights,” said Dugolli.

[Opium]

Канада ещё не признала, боятся......здесь Кебек тоже независимость может потребовать.....Алберта может,...... да мало ли провинций.

[Sari Galin]

Сторонники отделения Квебека от Канады приветствовали независимость Косово

Канадские франкофонные организации, выступающие за отделение провинции Квебек от этой страны, приветствовали объявление независимости Косово, сообщает AFP.

По мнению наблюдателей, в одностороннем отделении края от Сербии они видят благоприятный для себя знак, позволяющий надеяться на аналогичный исход и их собственной борьбы.

В то же время правительство Канады не может определиться с тем, как относиться с сложившейся ситуации. С одной стороны США и большинство европейских союзников Канады по НАТО уже признали или объявили о готовности признать независимость края, с другой - официальная Оттава не хочет давать дополнительных аргументов сторонникам раздела своей страны.

В 1980 и 1995 году в Квебеке проводились референдумы по вопросу об отделении от Канады. Причем на последнем из них сторонники сохранения единства страны победили лишь с ничтожным преимуществом, напоминает агентство.

17 февраля парламент Косово принял декларацию о независимости края. Сербия не признала это решение, а парламент и правительство этой страны объявили декларацию косоваров не имеющей юридической силы.

Тем не менее, большинство исламских стран, а также часть государств Евросоюза и США уже объявили, что считают Косово независимым государством.

[Sari Galin]

Anger mounts in Serb corner of Kosovo

By Nick Thorpe

BBC News, Mitrovica

The schoolchildren poured out of a narrow alleyway, carrying handmade banners.

"Kosovo is the heart of Serbia," they chanted.

On their way to join the demonstration they posed, giggling, for the world press - then rushed on, like a swirl of snow on a wintry day.

It was cold in northern Mitrovica, and few of the older generations shared the children's excitement.

On the outskirts of the town, hard-faced men and women piled out of school buses, which had ferried them in from outlying villages in this, predominantly Serb, north-western corner of Kosovo.

A stage had been erected in the centre, and Serbian folk music played from loudspeakers, before the speeches started.

Between 6,000 and 8,000 people, according to police estimates, gathered for this first public reaction of the Kosovo Serbs to Sunday's declaration of Kosovo's independence.

Speaker after speaker condemned the declaration, and reaffirmed that Kosovo could never secede from the motherland.

'Occupiers'

Some speakers also attacked the EU decision to send a mission here to take over from the UN in 120 days' time.

The Serbian government has made clear that such a mission could only be sent with the approval of the UN Security Council.

With the Security Council split between states which support and oppose independence, the EU has adopted Kosovo as its own problem and approved the mission - with the consent even of those countries which have said they will not recognise an independent Kosovo.

"The EU mission is not welcome here... They are intruders, occupiers and abductors of our land," Marko Jaksic, a hardline local Serb leader, told the crowd.

Burly men with short hair styles and leather jackets manoeuvred through the crowd, keeping an eye on the journalists, monitoring interviews.

Risk of violence

A few hundred metres up the road, almost opposite the police station, an advance party of the EU mission - the International Civilian Office or ICO as it is called - is already ensconced in a former hotel.

Tall metal gates, with a fresh coat of paint, United Nations white, protect the occupants from Serb anger. Ukrainian United Nations police patrol outside. There is no EU flag, no insignia or symbols of any kind.

Both the international members of the mission and the local staff feel vulnerable.

There have been several grenade attacks on this and other targets in recent nights.

Two grenades thrown at this building so far have failed to explode. Another blew up in the yard of a house 30m (100 feet) away, shattering windows.

And on Sunday night, two UN vehicles, and one belonging to the local court, a branch of the Pristina-based Ministry of Justice, were set on fire in the village of Zubin Potok.

City split

The crowd marched the short distance from the centre of town to the main bridge across the Ibar, scene of some of the worst inter-ethnic clashes in March 2004.

Only this narrow river, with two roads and one pedestrian bridge, separates the predominantly Serb north from the now purely Albanian south of this once multi-ethnic city.

As they marched they took up the children's chant: "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia."

"I came here to defend my country, my land," said Srdjan Komadina, a 17-year-old student.

"Would you give Scotland independence?"

After burning an Albanian flag the crowd rapidly dispersed - as did the UN special riot police, tucked away out of sight, in a car park south of the river.

And everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The independence of Kosovo has provoked strong emotions, but so far, little violence.

[Sari Galin]

Белград отзывает посла из Вашингтона

18.02.2008

Премьер-министр Сербии Воислав Коштуница вечером 18 февраля заявил, что его страна отзывает своего посла из Вашингтона для консультаций, сообщает РИА Новости.

Это решение было принято вслед за выступлением госсекретаря США Кондолиззы Райс, которая объявила, что Соединенные Штаты официально признали независимость Косово.

Сербия неоднократно заявляла, что понизит уровень дипломатических отношений с теми странами, которые признают независимость Косово, однако не пойдет на полный разрыв с ними.

В то же время госсекретарь США, заявляя о признании независимости сербского края, подчеркнула, что надеется на дальнейшее позитивное развитие отношений своей страны с Сербией.

Кроме того, Райс оговорилась, что не ждет ухудшения отношений с Москвой, которая, как известно, выступает категорически против косовской независимости.

Тем временем о готовности признать новое исламское государство на территории Европы заявили большинство арабских и мусульманских стран, а также 17 из 27 стран Евросоюза.

Парламент края принял декларацию о независимости 17 февраля. Сербия заявила, что этот документ не имеет юридической силы и является ничтожным.

[Sari Galin]

Takimag Does Not Recognize “Kosovo”

Posted by Taki Theodoracopulos on February 18, 2008

I knew that this administration makes the gang that couldn’t shoot straight look like criminal geniuses, but I never realized just how dumb the Bush-Cheney gang truly is. When I saw Bush announce that Uncle Sam has recognized Kosovo, it reminded me of those moronic Englishmen who had seen the murderous Stalin in action against his own people who had returned home and told the world they had “been over into the future and it worked.”

How can the State Department be so idiotic? Doesn’t anyone in Heaven’s name realize that Kosovo and Albania are the equivalent danger to European peace that Afghanistan and Pakistan are in the Far East? In order to gain brownie points with the towelheads of Saudi Arabia, America is allowing a Muslim belt to be created in the heart of the Balkans and Christian Europe. Islamic radicals, including supporters of bin Laden, are crawling all over Albania and Kosovo, not to mention the terrorist drug dealers who are infesting European capitals raising money for Islamic causes. It is these same bin Laden KLA members who helped Kosovo fight for independence from Serbia and who will now turn their guns against Christian Serb enclaves.

FDR wished to end the British Empire and managed it even if he didn’t live to see it. The pathology of self-destruction continues. We go to war against the only secular leader of the Muslim world, Saddam, unleash death and destruction and waste our men and resources instead of concentrating them in Afghanistan, and now we encourage, along with the craven Brits and French, a hotbed of terrorism to become the world’s 193rd nation. Even if Bush was a Manchurian candidate controlled by neocons—which he was until he became a lame duck and they lost interest in him—he could not preside over a more self-destructive policy. Palestine had her lands taken away, and her people have suffered under Israel’s brutal occupation for decades, and yet we go and recognize a rogue state of 2 million hoodlums, drug dealers, criminals, and Islamic fanatics. Go figure. And this guy calls himself a Christian.

[Sari Galin]

Австралия признала независимость Косово

Австралия во вторник, 19 февраля, официально признала независимость Косово, сообщает Reuters.

Как заявил министр иностранных дел страны Стивен Смит, Австралия с уважением относится к решению жителей Косово и намеревается установить с краем дипломатические отношения. Он также выразил уверенность, что независимость Косово в ближайшее время признают и другие государства.

Напомним, что Косово, в одностороннем порядке провозгласившее независимость 17 февраля, уже решили признать большинство стран Евросоюза, а также США, Афганистан, Албания и ряд других стран. Испания, Греция, Кипр, Словакия, Болгария, Румыния, Сербия, Китай, Россия и еще несколько государств действия косовских властей законными не признали.

После провозглашения независимости края в Сербии и Косово прошла волна протестов. Сербская полиция предъявила президенту, премьер-министру и спикеру Косово обвинение по уголовной статье, инкриминировав им "провозглашение фальшивого государства на территории Сербии". Правительство Сербии, а затем и парламент страны, аннулировали декларацию независимости края.

[thepunisher]

NEVER WITHDRAW

Kosovo's independence announcement rippled through the world's separatist movements and breakaway states, which range from disputed slivers of former Soviet republics to remote rebel enclaves in Asia or Africa.

A pro-Tamil Tiger rebel Web site said the recognition "debunked" arguments that a separate ethnic Tamil state in northern and eastern Sri Lanka was unviable.

Georgia said it feared Kosovo's independence may embolden breakaway movements in the Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.

Moldova, with its own Russian-speaking breakaway region of Transdniestra, also warned it could be a "factor of destabilization in Europe".

Ultimately, Economides said there was a risk countries -- possibly including Russia, a long-term Serbian ally angry at Western recognition of Kosovo -- might recognize other breakaway states in their neighbors in an attempt to destabilize them.

Experts say that, at the very least, Kosovo's fate acts as a drastic disincentive for countries to allow large multinational peacekeeping forces into areas such as Sudan's Darfur region that might in future want independence or greater autonomy.

Sri Lanka's ambassador to Geneva and the United Nations Dayan Jayatilleka said Serb forces should have held their ground in 1999 and fought NATO troops back.

"The...independence of Kosovo is the result of the failure of political will on the part of the ex-Yugoslav leadership," he wrote in a Sri Lankan newspaper, drawing lessons for his own country, where government forces are launching an assault into rebel territory where Tamil Tigers run a de facto state.

"Never withdraw the armed forces from any part of territory in which they are challenged, and never permit a foreign presence on (your) soil."

http://mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/FullArt...957254220080219

[Patologist]

Интересно будет смотреть реакцию Обиж-бежана на признание Косово..и сами признают ли глядя на старшего брата?