Kosovo to declare independence on 17th: When will Pakistan recognize the 4th Muslim state in Europe

Occupied Kosovo is the unfinished business of the “destruction” of Yugoslavia, and the defeat of the Ottomans in Europe. As Turkey retreated East of the Bosphorus, it left behind many islands of Muslims totally surrounded by their former enemies. Hounded by enemies on all sides, it is amazing that these Muslims survived at all.

Bosnia-Hersogovina, Macedonia, and Croatia are independent, but Kosovo remains occupied by Serbia. After the destruction, and then cutting down of Bosnia, a fatigued world did not want to deal with the suppression and the plight of the Kosovans in Europe. Today Kosovo a Muslim Albanian country remains gobbled up by Serbia which is refusing to give Kosovo its independence. Belgrade and Pristina have been unable to reach agreement on Kosovo’s final status: the province’s Albanian leadership supports independence but Serbia is opposed.

Bosnia itself is a rump state which was combined with Herzogovina because the flag holders of free speech and freedom “did not want to tolerate a Muslim state in the heart of Europe” (British foreign secretary quote). Europe stood by, when Muslims were massacred in rape camps and mass graves. It took America to bomb Serbia to its senses and it took America to stop the carnage in Bosnia. Today Mr. Bush remains the most popular leader in Albania and Kosovo.

This was the Muslim Albanian flag

This was the Egyptian Albanian flag. Egypt also used a version of this flag before Nasser. 

Kosovo became Muslim when the Turkish Ottoman Muslims ruled all of Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and were at the edge of Vienna.

They Kosovans are still choosing a flag.

This is “Scanderbeg’s flag” that united Albanians in the 15th century. But the flag predates Scanderbeg, since it was the flag of the principate of Kastrioti even before him. As for the 28th of November, it is a double celebration. In 28 Nov 1444, Scanderbeg returned and liberated the castle of Kruja, and from there started the struggle to liberate the whole of Albania. In 28 Nov 1912, Ismail Qemali, conscious of the symbolism of the date, raised the flag in Vlora and proclaimed Albania’s independence, following a congress of delegates from all Albanian lands. Kosova, Macedonia, Cameria as well were represented in that congress, and that’s why the date and the flag are symbolic of all Albanian nation and not just the citizens of the (truncated) Republic of Albania.

Kosovo to declare independence on 17th:

Serbia

BELGRADE: Serbia’s minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said Friday that his government has information that the Albanian-majority province will declare independence on February 17.

“The Serbian government has received more and more significant information that (Kosovo Prime Minister) Hashim Thaci will illegally declare the unilateral independence of Kosovo on February 17,” Samardzic said.

“The EU cannot expect that just before the unilateral declaration of independence announced for the 17th of February, that Serbia itself signs for the independence of Kosovo,” he was quoted as saying in a statement.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said on Friday about 100 countries were ready to recognise the province’s independence from Serbia as soon as it was declared. “We have confirmation by around 100 countries that they are ready to recognise Kosovo’s independence immediately after we declare it. We will have a powerful and massive recognition,” he told a news conference.

Thaci was speaking after his regular weekly meeting with Joachim Ruecker, head of the Kosovo mission of the United Nations which has administered the territory since NATO expelled Serbian forces in 1999. Thaci did not name any countries or specify when he plans to declare independence. In Belgrade, Serbia’s Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic said in a statement a declaration could come as early as next weekend. agencies.

PRISTINA/BELGRADE (Reuters) - Kosovo is expected to declare its independence from Serbia by next Sunday, inviting the European Union to send in a planned supervisory mission and NATO to stay on at the head of a peacekeeping force.

“It will all be done by Sunday,” a senior political source told Reuters. He denied speculation that it would be a two-stage process, with a statement of intent next weekend and an actual declaration in March.

Kosovo hopes for quick recognition from the United States and from the EU, whose foreign ministers meet on Feb 18.

But Kosovo’s minority Serbs plan a virtual secession of their own, with proposals to establish an “assembly” next Saturday in the Serb-dominated Mitrovica region of Kosovo’s north, the Kosovo Albanian daily Zeri reported.

Zeri said the assembly was part of a Serb scheme to “create a separate political and territorial entity with special links to Serbia”.

Serbia recently opened a government office to oversee public services in Mitrovica , saying it would “intensify” Belgrade’s parallel network of services for Serbs. The United Nations, which has administered Kosovo since Serb forces were expelled by NATO in 1999, called it a “provocative act”.

“Everything must be done for (Kosovo) Serbs to remain on their land and to live safely as citizens of Serbia after an eventual unilateral declaration of independence,” Serbia’s Ministry for Kosovo said in a statement on Friday.

Analysts say Serbia, if it can’t keep Kosovo, wants to partition the territory, keeping control of the north, where it already provides health, education and administrative services for Serbs.

Kosovo’s independence move was delayed three times in the past year, in deference to Serb-ally Russia’s insistence on continuing talks in search of an elusive compromise, and because of its explosive impact on Serbian politics.

PRELUDE TO CHAOS

Despite two elections — one general, one presidential –, Serbia is still deeply split. Nationalists are determined to halt talks on closer ties with the EU if it goes ahead with recognition. Pro-Western parties say the bid for EU membership must be the country’s priority.

The ruling coalition is on the verge of collapse.

Parliament speaker Oliver Dulic told the daily Vecernje Novosti on Sunday that an early parliamentary election was one of the options to resolve the crisis, which will be discussed by pro-EU President Boris Tadic and nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica later this week.

“That will be a key meeting designed to stabilise the political situation in Serbia and will answer whether this coalition can function in the future,” said Dulic.

If Kostunica kept turning to hardline nationalist opposition parties to support his unbending position on Kosovo, the coalition would fall, Dulic added.

Labour Minister Rasim Ljajic said everything in Serbia “had ground to a halt”, adding: “This is a prelude to chaos.”

In Kosovo, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci went to the country on Sunday to deliver a new tractor to a Serb family and promise “much better days to come” after independence.

“We are closing the chapter of the past… Kosovo is our joint fatherland,” he told the Slavkovic family.

On a visit to Rubovce village last week, the family told the 39-year-old former guerrilla fighter he was “younger than our tractor”.

(Additional reporting by Gordana Filipovic, Ellie Tzortzi)