To Europe via Kosovo

Montenegro betrayed Serbia with “Greater Albania”

Today, the Montenegrin opposition intends to hold mass anti-government demonstrations in the country's capital, Podgorica, against the October 9 decision of Milo Djukanovic's cabinet to recognize the independence of the Serbian region of Kosovo. On Monday, Podgorica became the scene of mass demonstrations, in which from 10 to 30 thousand people took part. They tried to break into the building of the Assembly (parliament) of Montenegro, smashed store windows and set fire to cars and garbage containers. At least 37 people were injured during the clashes, including 26 police officers.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet of Ministers issued an order banning new protests. However, opposition leaders intend to ignore this ban or find other ways to counter the authorities' decision. “The opposition will use all available means to achieve the annulment of Kosovo’s recognition,” Predrag Popovic, chairman of the People’s Party of Montenegro, told Vremya Novostei. “If the parliamentary path, and in particular the demand to hold a vote on a vote of confidence in the government, does not produce results, the next step will be for the opposition parties to stop working in parliament and move to extra-parliamentary methods of struggle.”

According to independent opinion polls, about 80% of Montenegrin citizens oppose the recognition of Kosovo's independence, declared unilaterally by Albanian separatists on February 17 . They believe that the decision of the Djukanovic government dealt a blow to the centuries-old traditions of Montenegrin-Serbian brotherhood and became an impetus for Albanian separatism within Montenegro itself. Nowadays, Albanians already make up up to 10% of the population of Montenegro; high natural growth and an open border with Albania allow them to count on a significant increase in this indicator in the coming years, which will open the way for a repetition of the Kosovo scenario.

The head of the Montenegrin Foreign Ministry, Milan Roczen, explained the government’s decision on Kosovo by “recognition of the political reality in the region” and “partnership with the European Union.” Of the 27 EU member countries, 22 have already recognized Kosovo's independence. Prime Minister Djukanovic, during a visit to Vienna on Monday, confirmed that “Montenegro is strategically oriented towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration” and plans to apply to join the EU by the end of this year. “The United States and the European Union put very strong pressure on the Montenegrin authorities to force them to recognize the independence of Kosovo. And since Montenegro had already set itself the goal of joining the EU, then, naturally, it could no longer resist such pressure,” Pavel Kandel, head of the department of ethnopolitical conflicts at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted to VN.

Moreover, in May 2006, it was the Albanian votes that ensured Milo Djukanovic’s victory in the referendum on the independence of Montenegro from Serbia. The Chairman of the Montenegrin “Movement for Change” Nebojsa Medojevic even accused the Prime Minister of the fact that by recognizing Kosovo he “paid off the debt to the Albanian drug cartel, which distributes a huge amount of drugs along the heroin route from Afghanistan through Turkey, Kosovo and the northern part of Montenegro further to Europe, which cannot be without the support of the authorities." “This drug cartel provided both political and business services to the Montenegrin prime minister,” Mr. Medojevic is sure.

The fact that Podgorica’s decision to recognize Pristina was not independent is evidenced by the simultaneous similar step of the Macedonian authorities. Skopje also strives to join NATO and the EU, while being under pressure from Albanian radicals. Macedonian Albanians already make up between a quarter and a third of the country's population. “Albanians in Macedonia will follow the same path as Albanians in Kosovo. They already took up arms in 2001, raising an anti-government rebellion under the slogans of granting them cultural and national autonomy,” noted Elena Guskova, head of the Center for the Study of the Contemporary Balkan Crisis at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with VN. — In Montenegro, Albanians are also raising their heads. There, authorities have already arrested several Albanian activists involved in the creation of a terrorist network closely linked to Kosovo. All these territories border Kosovo and form a single whole, capable of becoming an arena for coordinated protests by Albanians under the slogan of creating a “Greater Albania.”

Petr ISKENDEROV