The geopolitical project of “Greater Albania” received unprecedented support from an extremely unlikely source after Serbia surprisingly surrendered to the policy of passport-free travel for its Albanian and Macedonian neighbors by 2021 as part of an entirely voluntarily initiative that Belgrade believes will boost its prospects of one day joining the EU but which dangerously risks undermining its sovereignty even further with time to the point where the patriotic slogan of “Kosovo is Serbia” might monstrously transform into “Serbia is Albania”.
Regional observers of the Balkans long feared that a multi-national conflict was brewing as a result of the US-backed geopolitical project of “Greater Albania” that threatens the territorial integrity of Serbia and the Republic of (“North”) Macedonia, which is why everyone was surprised when both of the countries most directly affected by this plot simply surrendered to it last week by agreeing to a policy of passport-free travel between all three. It was long suspected that Macedonian premier Zoran Zaev, who came to power after a long-running US-backed Color Revolution, was going to sell his country’s interests out to its Albanian neighbor after already doing so with its Greek and Bulgarian ones, but many thought that Serbia would at least put up some principled resistance instead of rolling over and legally allowing more Albanians to invade its sovereign territory after they already succeeded in de-facto detaching the Serbs’ civilizational cradle of Kosovo and Metohija from the rest of the state.
Apologists will implore the domestic and international audience to applaud this move as a much-needed pragmatic step to avoid the larger regional war that so many observers had feared, but the fact of the matter is that there was no pressing reason for Serbia to allow Albanians passport-free travel by 2021, which wasn’t a 1914-like ultimatum. Instead, Belgrade simply undertook this entirely voluntary step because it believes that it will boost its prospects of one day joining the EU even though Brussels never demanded anything of the sort from Serbia (which is the actual surprise in this story). President Vucic is a diehard europhile who earnestly wants to do everything in his power to incorporate Serbia into the EU, which includes tacitly “recognizing” Kosovo as an “independent state” per the bloc’s long-standing prerequisite to joining. It’s with that anti-constitutional goal in mind that his decision to go ahead with the passport-free policy begins to make more sense since it’s designed to pressure his people into accepting what he’d portray as a fait accompli by then.
It should be said that while many Alt-Media voices have done excellent work in raising awareness about the geostrategic ends that the US seeks to advance by coercing Serbia into “recognizing” Kosovo, few have dared to draw attention to the interests that Russia has in this as well because it’s too “politically incorrect” for most people to handle. The author elaborated on the Kremlin’s behind-the-scenes strategic calculus in his piece earlier this year about how “Russia Might Return To The Balkans In A Big (But Controversial) Way“, which relied upon three expert analyses from Russia’s highly influential and well-connected Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) think tank to prove that Moscow wouldn’t really mind all that much if Serbia went along with the West’s plans because it seems to have resigned itself to realizing that they’re probably irreversible without the political will to make unacceptable sacrifices to change (which might not even be successful in that scenario). Therefore, the tacit Russian position seems to be to redirect the strategic dynamics instead, if at all possible.
This understanding also explains why Moscow recognized the Republic of Macedonia’s anti-constitutional name change despite previously pledging not to, so it follows that it would also respect the will of Serbia’s internationally recognized government as well no matter how unconstitutional of a move it may undertake regarding Kosovo. Outspoken patriotic political analyst Anna Filimonova warned that Russia’s interests-driven approach to the issue risks losing the enormous soft power that it commands in Serbia in her 2018 piece about how “Russia Is Losing The Serbian People” (in Russian) because of its unwillingness to take into account extremely strong domestic public opposition to Vucic’s Kosovo plans in order to avoid losing state-level contracts that serve as the contemporary basis for its influence in the Balkan country, though her words will probably fall on deaf ears because modern-day Russia broke with its Soviet predecessor’s policy of “people’s revolutions” long ago and now deals mostly with inter-elite relations on the state level, not interpersonal ones.
As jarring as this might be for some people, it’s simply the most accurate reflection of reality as it objectively exists, which in and of itself doesn’t have any value component added to it unless an individual personally wants to attach one. The same goes for Vucic’s policy of passport-free travel for Albanians and Macedonians by 2021 (the latter of which will likely be Macedonian Albanians), which in and of itself is pragmatic in a political vacuum if looked at solely from the socio-economic perspective, though this approach is actually very dangerous from the standpoint of international security because it risks encouraging more illegal Albanian migration that could then be exploited to make Kosovo-like territorial demands against the state with time. Not only that, but it’s also irresponsible from a political position as well because the author’s two–part article series in 2015 about how “‘Greater Albania’ Is A Myth To Preserve The Country’s Unity” explained why there’s no need to appease this fascist-era geopolitical project, which is being advanced to prevent Albania from falling apart.
Even so, Vucic is willing to risk losing even more of his country’s sovereignty in the future as a result of the long-term demographic consequences that this capitulation could foreseeably cause simply because he believes that it’s the secret to fast-tracking Serbia’s membership in the EU by indirectly facilitating Belgrade’s “recognition” of Kosovo. It’s difficult to imagine why this wouldn’t happen by the time that policy enters into force since the Kosovo Albanians might already have.
Albanian citizenship at that point and therefore make this a fait accompli anyhow after receiving the Belgrade-approved right to travel back and forth from the occupied province to the rest of Serbia without experiencing any difficulties at the line of control. In other words, the Albanian invasion of Kosovo will proceed even deeper into the Serbian heartland than ever before as the Hybrid War on Serbia presses on, resulting in the worst-ever nightmare scenario that would send chills down the spine of any true Serbian patriot, and that’s the slogan of “Kosovo is Serbia” monstrously transforming into “Serbia is Albania”.
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This article was also published on OneWorld.
Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from OneWorld
