A plan for ethnically pure countries sets fire to the Balkans – World

“Decisions” is the title of one of the chapters in a document that Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa presented to selected EU colleagues. What is written is similar to a decision of the Berlin Congress from 1878, when representatives of the Great Powers redrawn the borders of the Balkans and decided the fate of the peoples of Southeast Europe, reports “Deutsche says“.

A total of four lines are dedicated to the first proposal in the document – “Unification of Kosovo and Albania”. The other idea concerns “Unification of most of Republika Srpska (the Serb-dominated part of Bosnia and Herzegovina) with Serbia” – there are three lines about that. The next paragraph in this chapter contains Jansa’s views on how to “resolve the Croatian national question”: either by “unifying with Croatia the Croat-dominated canton of Bosnia and Herzegovina” or by giving the region a “special status” modeled on South Tyrol.

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Finally, attention is paid to Bosnian Muslims, who have been called “Bosniaks” since 1991 and who make up half of the population in the former Yugoslav Republic of Bosnia. The Slovenian prime minister’s plan envisions them gaining an “independently functioning state” for which they “take full responsibility”. If they do not accept, according to Jansa, they would be left without any European perspective:

“They could choose between a future in the EU, a future without the EU or a future with Turkey in a referendum,” the document said. According to Jansa, Bosniaks have so far been in favor of EU membership, but if the chaos, influence of Turkey and radical Islam continued to grow, the situation could worsen dramatically in ten years.

The original idea seemed to be to keep the Slovenian prime minister’s plan a secret until it was agreed with officials in the region and the international community. But even the mere mention that such a document exists causes severe shocks. The issue of pushing new borders on the territory of the former Yugoslavia remains extremely explosive.

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Neither Serbs in Bosnia nor Croats see Sarajevo as their capital. Each ethnic community has its own version of the past and its own “image of the enemy.” The war in Bosnia never seemed to end.

Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Garlic-Radman tried to calm the spirits: during a visit to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on April 14th, he assured that Croatia supports the integrity of the neighboring country and that there is “no evidence” of the existence of a Slovenian “phantom document”. .

One of the alleged recipients, European Council President Charles Michel, had previously stated that he could not confirm anything, which did not necessarily mean that he had not received such a document. On Wednesday night, however, a Slovenian internet portal published the so-called “non-paper” under the headline: “Western Balkans: the way forward”.

For 30 years, there have been two different concepts for the future of the region. It is generally accepted that the current borders remain unchanged, with each country having to build democratic structures that also give rights to ethnic minorities. The other concept, which is rather tacit, envisions redrawing the borders of the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Its proponents argue that “ethnically pure” nation-states will remove the current “chaos” over minority rights, institutions and democratic voting methods.

Slovenia will take over the EU’s interim presidency on June 1st, 2021, and Prime Minister Jansa plans to make the Balkans a priority. He gets along well with Victor Orban. The Hungarian prime minister is funding right-wing media close to Jansa in Slovenia, and by a detour through Ljubljana to those in northern Macedonia, whose former prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, has been granted asylum in Hungary, despite a valid corruption conviction.

And the new EU Enlargement Commissioner, Oliver Warhey, nominated by Orban for the post, is mainly concerned with Serbia’s accession to the EU. This means that unnoticed initiatives, such as Jansha’s for reshaping the Balkans, are not sinking into the network thus created.

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However, it is highly unlikely that the Slovenian prime minister will succeed in pursuing his dreams for the future of the Western Balkans. Varhei is largely isolated from European structures, so the Slovenian interim presidency is unlikely to do much damage to the EU.

But endeavors such as Jansha’s document are by no means empty delusions. Nearly three years ago, Serbian President Alexander Vucic announced his demand for ethnic border crossing in the region, which received an unexpectedly large response – then-European Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, former EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn and Austrian President Alexander van der Belen commented on the issue. for the exchange of territories between Serbia and Kosovo.

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