The configuration of the new world order, the first of this magnitude after the Yalta Conference, began with the unification of Germany, with the dissolution of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, and continued with the destruction of the SFRY, with the birth of the Republic of Kosovo, with the "Arab Spring" and recently with the war in Ukraine. In this new configuration there is no doubt that Kosovo is also
After the Second World War, with Serbian political dominance, the Kosovo issue was tried to be closed in an unnatural and politically contrived manner. Until 1981, the Yugoslav state had managed to keep Kosovo out of the focus of international information.
The demonstrations of 1968, with their demand for the Republic of Kosovo, were presented to the international public as ordinary student protests for the improvement of the economic conditions of life. While Albanians convicted for patriotic activities were considered "political prisoners", it was a common occurrence - natural for all of Yugoslavia and other countries of the Eastern bloc.
Repeating the demand for the Republic
However, starting from the demonstrations of 1981, when the Albanians reiterated their demand for the Republic of Kosovo, where 9 were killed according to Yugoslav sources, the issue of Kosovo exploded the Yugoslav frames and became the subject of the press and international media of the time, but not of governments of particular states or of international political bodies.
So, the various governments and generally the international factor manifested their opposition to the 1981 demonstrations with silence. For the West, Yugoslavia was a zone of erosion of Russian influence, while for the East it was a model of humane socialism in the world. Therefore, the European countries ignored the Kosovo issue with disdain.
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The issue of Kosovo and the role of international diplomacy in the process of its liberation
After the demonstrations of 1981, the socio-political and legal status of the Albanians and of the Province of Kosovo itself came to be minimized. This phenomenon became evident after Milosevic came to power as president of Serbia (1985), who relied on conservative and Serbian nationalist forces.
The second farce of the new story
Encouraged by the silence of Europe and other Yugoslav republics towards the Kosovo problem, on March 23, 1989, under a state of emergency, under the supervision of more than 16 thousand soldiers and 10 thousand special policemen of the federal police, in the session of Assembly of Kosovo, the amendments to the Constitution of Serbia were approved. Unfortunately, about 100 elected Albanian delegates also participated in this act of destroying the Kosovo constitution, which formally legitimized the second farce in recent history (after the Assembly of Prizren on July 10, 1945).
The unconstitutional violence that the Serbian government undertook against the autonomous structures of Kosovo and the repressive measures against the Albanian population worsened the situation and made the Albanians more determined on the road to secession. more 2 July 1990, as a response to Belgrade's destructive policy, all 114 Kosovo Albanian MPs approved The Constitutional Declaration, through which de jure Kosovo separated from Serbia and left open the possibility of participating in the Yugoslav Federation or Confederation.
Classical occupation by Serbia
After that, it was expected what countermeasures Serbia and Yugoslavia would take. This wait did not last long. The Assembly of Serbia on July 5, in an irregular procedure and without constitutional support, issued the decision on the suspension of the Assembly and the Government of Kosovo and the establishment of violent administration in Kosovo.
On the same day, all high-ranking officials and employees of the Assembly and the Government of Kosovo were expelled from the building of the Assembly by police forces. Broadcasting of the Prishtina Radio and Television program was forcibly interrupted and, after a few days, the daily newspaper "Rilindja" was also unable to publish. In the days that followed, all the employees in the central administration, the overwhelming number of Albanian members of the police, and the employees in the local administration started to leave their jobs. There was no longer any doubt that Serbia was establishing a classic occupation apparatus in Kosovo and that it wanted to rule it as its own colony.
In these circumstances, the state bodies of Kosovo, on September 7, 1990 in Kaçanik, the delegates of the Assembly of Kosovopromulgated the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo and other follow-up acts, taking Kosovo to a new stage towards independence and the creation of a sovereign state.
Constitutional Declaration and Kaçanik's constitution are the highest constitutional acts of Kosovo, after the Bujan Resolution /31.XII.1943-January 2, 1944/, with which de jure the constitutional construction of Kosovo by the people's representatives began.
Consequently, one year later, on September 26-30, 1991, Kosovo was also organized referendum to give the necessary legitimacy to the Republic of Kosovo. Now not within the Yugoslav Federation, but a sovereign and independent state.
From this time, the issue of Kosovo, after the proclamation of the Republic of Kosovo, enters a new historical phase, on the way to the final achievement of its independence. This solution has a major weight on the Albanian issue in general and inter-ethnic weight in the Balkans. In the European Union and in other countries of the West, especially the USA, they developed numerous political contacts with the leadership of Kosovo and with other Albanian leaders. The representatives of the Albanians were received by the officials of these states up to the highest state levels.
On February 19, 1993, Rugova presented to the international community at a meeting in Atlanta, USA, a 10-point plan for the solution of the Kosovo issue, calling for the Albanian population in Kosovo to be protected by an international military and civilian presence and Kosovo should be declared an international protectorate. On the other hand, despite the new circumstances, the central government in Belgrade tried to maintain the hegemony over the republics of the Yugoslav Federation, over their sovereignty, some of them went to war (Slovenia, Croatia and BiH), while Kosovo was placed in a «pat-position», ignoring it in Dayton /1995/.
Precisely in the moments when the Kosovo issue became a concern for the special and common international levels, when a new ethnic and political configuration was created in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, the NATO secretary, General Manfred Warner, warned Serbia against efforts for ethnic cleansing of Albanians from Kosovo and underlined that "an expansion of wars towards Kosovo and a Balkan war must be stopped at any cost". Whereas former president George Bush warned the Serbian leadership in December 1992 that the US may use force if Serbia extends the war in Kosovo. Bush's message indirectly said that "in the event of a conflict in Kosovo caused by the Serbs, the US will prepare to use military forces in Kosovo and Serbia against the Serbs".
Bill Clinton's message
A month later, namely on January 21, 1993, Bill Clinton also sent this message to Milosevic in his inauguration speech for president of the USA: "Whenever our interests are threatened, or whenever the will and conscience of the international community is insulted, we will act with peaceful diplomacy when possible, with force when necessary."
Thus, for the first time since the Second World War, in the 90s the humanitarian concept gained superiority over the concept of "state interests, territorial integrity, "absolute sovereignty", protected by international law.
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36 years since the "First Republic"
These happened when the "bipolar world" or "two superpowers" disappeared, when the US remained the only superpower capable of forming and leading coalitions to deal with extreme situations.
These happened when the "bipolar world" or "two superpowers" disappeared, when the USA, but also Great Britain and those countries that have been interested in extracting Kosovo without going through the experience of Bosnia, have constantly tried to create prerequisites for this. They have tried to solve the problem of Kosovo step by step, amortizing the obstacles of countries such as Russia, China, etc.
"Milosevic only knows the language of force"
After all these developments, it is understandable why the contingent of foreign forces was deployed in Macedonia, as early as 1992. Initially known as "UNPROFOR Forces". At the same time, the Albanian Government officially requested foreign military assistance, first of all from NATO, within the framework of the "partnership for peace" formula. NATO experts initially proposed a disproportionate division of these forces between Albania and Macedonia. 18 thousand forces were deployed in Macedonia and 2 thousand in Albania. As the danger of war became ever greater, the international military presence was increased without much fanfare or declaration.
The UN Security Council twice reviewed the situation in Kosovo and discussed the possibility of the need for intervention. The resolution condemning the Belgrade regime was adopted, but it was not decided in favor of the intervention. In October 1998, a new initiative for military intervention appeared in Euro-Atlantic politics, the NATO initiative. All 19 member countries of the Alliance reached a collegial conclusion that "Milosevic only knows the language of force".
Assessing that the risk of spreading the war outside the borders of the former Yugoslavia had almost turned into a threat, NATO's political command decided to address an ultimatum to Belgrade, whose term expired in two weeks. But NATO's first ultimatum "action order" failed. For two weeks, the West expressed full agreement to the intervention. All NATO member countries declared how many forces and means they were ready to make available to the operation command. However, on the night of the deadline, American mediator Hoolbrooke was in Belgrade for "final talks". On the very night of the expiration of the ultimatum, a government crisis occurred in Italy, which paralyzed Rome's action and made it unclear the possibility of exploiting its bases. However, the Italian Government was recreated with the same structure before a full day had passed.
The failure of the ultimatum
On the other hand, the failure of the ultimatum had encouraged Belgrade to undertake new terrorist actions against the Albanians. Also, the Western policy to intervene militarily in favor of bringing the crisis under control was opposed by official Russian policy. Despite all these circumstances, the Euro-Atlantic Alliance was determined for military intervention in the former Yugoslavia, but only the nature of the intervention remained debatable: whether it would be peaceful or warlike.
Sensitization of the international factor, after the massacres that took place in Kosovo, especially by ignoring the Holbrooke-Milosevic agreement, because during the entire time of the existence of the agreement, the Serbian forces continued arrests, murders, waged an undeclared war, which never stopped, insulting in this way, the International Monitoring Mission itself with inhuman behavior. In January 1999, the situation worsened even more. Hoolbroke's mission failed, and the promised truce came to an end. The Belgrade regime began to act criminally against the Albanian civilian population. Foreign observers discovered mass graves and other evidence of the massacre of Albanians. The OSCE Special Representative for Kosovo, Knut Volebek, presented to the world media horrific images of Serbian violence, including the Reçak Massacre, which ultimately eliminated the possibility of a peace agreement in direct Albanian-Serbian talks. as was proposed several years in a row. The conviction was created that the Serbian violence against Kosovo had taken the classic form of a savage primitive genocide. At the meeting of January 29, 1999, which was held in London, the Contact Group decided to call for political talks between the two delegations: Kosovo and Belgrade, in order to reach a new political agreement for regional peace and for the future status of Kosovo. The Contact Group chose Rambouillet Castle, a government residence near Paris, as the venue for the meeting.
Albanians welcomed the decision of the Euro-American powers to hold talks outside of Yugoslavia. The Rambouillet document is known by the name "Interim agreement for peace and self-government in Kosovo". The Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, arrived in rather complex circumstances of the talks in Rambouillet, who talked intensively with the Albanians to convince them to unilaterally sign the project. American views at this critical period on the fate of the agreement were:
1. If both delegations would sign, a military force would be stationed specifically in Kosovo;
2. If the agreement was signed only by the Albanian side, NATO would punish the Belgrade regime for not accepting peace and
3. If even the Albanian delegation did not sign the agreement, then the possibility of Euro-Atlantic Alliance aviation intervention in the former Yugoslavia would have to be re-examined once again.
The decision to accept the Rambouillet Agreement was made in the Albanian delegation, in the conditions of a strong external and internal psychological and political pressure. The signing of the Rambouillet document was a political and diplomatic victory. From this moment, the Albanians finally saw that they are supported and that their interests are not in conflict with the interests of the international community.
International institutions were notified of this "half success", while the Albanian delegation gained support in the international opinion. On March 24, a few days after the unilateral signing of the Agreement by the Albanian side in Paris and its rejection by the Serbian side, NATO aviation struck the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
This genocidal policy ended with the NATO bombings and the Kumanovo Agreement on June 9, 1999, ending the Serbian hegemonic policy led by the butcher of the Balkans, Slobodan Milosevic, and through him the Yugoslavia of Versailles was disintegrated. and that of AVNOJ, to create new states, including the Republic of Kosovo.
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36th Anniversary of the Constitutional Declaration
Setting up the new world order
The configuration of the new world order, the first of this magnitude after the Yalta Conference, began with the unification of Germany, with the undoing of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, and continued with the destruction of the RSFSR, with the birth of the Republic of Kosovo, with the "Arab Spring" and finally with the war in Ukraine. in this new configuration there is no doubt that Kosovo is also, therefore through this writing I appeal to the representatives of the position and the opposition, put aside the grudges, the struggle for power and position yourself towards the interest of Kosovo, because if we do not behave in accordance with the new circumstances, the price may be very high at the conclusion of this new world configuration. great historical personalities enter history when in very difficult circumstances they know how to make difficult and wise decisions.
