WAR Possible Fighting on Serbia / Kosovo border being reported? - 2 Serbians shot in Kosovo on Orthodox Christmas Eve - Post #69

Red Baron

Red Baron

Paleo-Conservative
_______________
Griz3752 said:
The only thing to keep this from boiling over was the heel of the SSRepublic holding the lid down.

Bad blood of long standing on all sides.
Click to expand...

Nothing worse than Slav versus Slav versus Muslim fighting.

Go back to the 1991 Yugoslav War.
 
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jward

jward

passin' thru
EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
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4h
Update: TASS: Serbia to call emergency meeting of National Security Council over escalation in Kosovo.
 
jward

jward

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Faytuks News Δ
@Faytuks
3h


UPDATE: "We haven't had a more difficult and bigger crisis in Kosovo. We will have a meeting of the National Security Council. And, I'm afraid, a lot of bad things (will happend), because I know who we're dealing with", Serbia's president Vucic says


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kosovo-online.com
 
jward

jward

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OSINTdefender
@sentdefender

NATO has announced that at least 25 Soldiers from the NATO Peacekeeping Mission in Kosovo (KFOR) have been Injured during “Violent Clashes” with Ethnic-Serbians in the City of Zvečan in Northern Kosovo today; the Injuries reportedly occurred after Explosive and Incendiary Devices were thrown into the Crowd of Peacekeepers with a Majority of the Injured Soldiers being Italian and Hungarian.
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1663262558864699394
View: https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1663262558864699394?s=20
 
danielboon

danielboon

TB Fanatic
NATO JFC Naples

@JFC_Naples

NATO Deploys Additional Forces to Kosovo Force In response to recent unrest and the injury of 30 members of NATO’s Kosovo Force, NATO has directed the deployment of the Operational Reserve Forces (ORF) for the Western Balkans, which was on a seven-day readiness-to-deploy status.
 
Zagdid

Zagdid

Veteran Member
abcnews.go.com

China expresses support for Serbia in renewed Kosovo clashes involving NATO troops

China has expressed its support for Serbia following renewed violence between ethnic Serbs and NATO troops in Kosovo
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

China expresses support for Serbia in renewed Kosovo clashes involving NATO troops​

China has expressed its support for Serbia following renewed violence between ethnic Serbs and NATO troops in Kosovo
ByThe Associated Press
May 30, 2023, 5:54 AM

BEIJING -- China on Tuesday expressed its support for Serbia’s efforts to “safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity” following renewed violence between ethnic Serbs and NATO peacekeeping troops in Kosovo.

China’s ruling Communist Party has long been a critic of the NATO alliance, stemming partly from the bombing of Beijing’s embassy in Belgrade during the 1999 air campaign to end Serbia’s brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.

The bombing, in which three Chinese journalists were killed, has long been used by Beijing to mobilize anti-Western sentiment. The U.S. apologized for the attack, blaming it on faulty intelligence. Its diplomatic missions in Beijing and other Chinese cities were assaulted in the fallout, setting ties on a negative trajectory that has grown ever more tense in recent years.

China, along with Russia and Serbia, does not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 independence and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Tuesday placed the blame for the violence on a failure to respect Serbian political rights.

“We oppose unilateral actions by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo," Mao said at a daily news briefing, referring to the Kosovo government in Pristina.

Despite Serbs boycotting recent local elections and seeking to prevent ethnic Albanian mayors from taking office, Mao said Serbs should be granted control over municipalities where they form majorities.

Violence was sparked when Serbs tried to take over the offices of one of the municipalities in northern Kosovo where Albanian mayors took up their posts last week. At least 30 troops from the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, were injured on Monday.

“We urge NATO to earnestly respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the relevant countries and truly do what is conducive to regional peace,” Mao said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was expected to meet with the Russian and Chinese ambassadors in an effort to show he has support for his policies.

NATO’s military intervention in 1999 eventually forced Serbia to pull out of the territory, but the dispute remains a flashpoint for conflict in eastern Europe.

Russian ally Serbia last year took the delivery of a sophisticated Chinese anti-aircraft system in a veiled operation, amid Western concerns that an arms buildup in the Balkans at the time of the war in Ukraine could threaten the fragile peace in the region.
 
danielboon

danielboon

TB Fanatic

NATO troops on guard in northern Kosovo for third day amid protests​

By Fatos Bytyci
May 31, 202310:03 AM EDTUpdated 2 hours ago

LEPOSAVIC, Kosovo, May 31 (Reuters) - NATO peacekeepers guarded town halls in ethnically divided northern Kosovo for a third day on Wednesday, as unrest prompted the alliance to send additional troops to the area and NATO and the West slammed Kosovo for not having done enough to stave off violence.
Following clashes on Monday in Zvecan, a northern town, during which 30 NATO troops and 52 ethnic Serbian protesters were hurt, NATO said it would send 700 more troops to Kosovo to boost its 4,000-strong mission. It was not clear when the soldiers would arrive.

Regional unrest has intensified following April elections that the ethnic Serbs boycotted, narrowing the turnout to 3.5% and leaving victory in four Serb-majority Kosovan mayoralties to ethnic Albanian candidates.
Those Kosovan Albanian mayors were then installed last week, a decision that spurred rebuke of Pristina by the U.S. and its allies on Friday for stoking discord with neighbouring Serbia.
Kosovo media reported on Wednesday that protesters outside a town hall in Zvecan, who were separated from Polish NATO troops by a razor-wire barrier, had broken windows on a police car and two cars belonging to Kosovan Albanian media outlets.

The demonstrators had damaged two cars a day earlier as well, but protests remained largely peaceful on Wednesday.

MAYOR STRANDED​

NATO soldiers also stood guard outside a municipal hall in Leposavic in northern Kosovo, where its ethnic Albanian mayor remained holed up after entering it amid Serb demonstrations on Monday. He couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
"While they (the mayors) may have been legally elected, we do not consider their election legitimate," Dragan, an ethnic Serb who lives in Leposavic, told Reuters on Wednesday.
The United States, NATO and allies have rebuked Kosovo for escalating tensions with Serbia, saying that forcefully installing the mayors in ethnic-Serb areas undermined efforts to improve troubled bilateral relations.
U.S. KFOR soldiers, under NATO, stand guard near a municipal office in Leposavic












[1/6] U.S. Kosovo Force (KFOR) soldiers, under NATO, stand guard near a municipal office in Leposavic, Kosovo May 31, 2023. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci

French President Emmanuel Macron said the unrest "has increased sharply since ethnic Albanian mayors took office."

The United States said it would penalize Kosovo for stoking tensions and excluded it from ongoing US-led military exercises in Europe.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Wednesday blamed Belgrade for being behind protests in the north in order to destabilise Kosovo.

DJOKOVIC​

Separately, Kosovo Olympic authorities asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to open disciplinary proceedings against Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, accusing him of stirring political tension with remarks made at the French Open.
Djokovic wrote "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia" on a camera lens on Monday, the day NATO troops and Serbians were hurt in clashes in Zvecan, where his father grew up.
Kosovo tennis federation chief Jeton Hadergjonaj said despite a general message against violence, Djokovic's remark on Kosovo being the "heart of Serbia" could ramp up tensions between Serbia and Kosovo.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic placed his army on full combat alert and ordered units to move closer to the border.
Northern Kosovo's majority Serbs have never accepted Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, and consider Belgrade their capital more than two decades after the Kosovo Albanian uprising against repressive Serbian rule.
Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in Kosovo as a whole, but northern Serbs have long demanded the implementation of an EU-brokered 2013 deal for the creation of an association of autonomous municipalities in their area.
Peacekeeping troops were deployed in Kosovo in 1999 after NATO bombing drove Serbia's police and army out of its former province. NATO troops on guard in northern Kosovo for third day amid protests
 
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Plain Jane

Just Plain Jane

Russian Ambassador Claims Maidan-Style Coup Attempt Unfolding In Belgrade | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com www.zerohedge.com

Russian Ambassador Claims Maidan-Style Coup Attempt Unfolding In Belgrade​


BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2023 - 10:25 PM
Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko has leveled some dramatic allegations against the West in relation to both the Ukraine war and ongoing tensions and clashes in northern Kosovo, which has been focus of international media attention.

The Russian ambassador claimed that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s opponents are plotting and attempting to stage a "Maidan-style coup" in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. His word choice implied he things the West is involved on some level.

Using terminology which has been familiar in Kremlin descriptions of what NATO is doing in Ukraine, Amb. Botsan-Kharchenko said, "This is part of the hybrid war. I would like to stress that anti-Belgrade forces acted almost synchronously; they operate on two fronts - this is the situation in Kosovo and attempts at a Maidan coup here, in Belgrade."

Large Serbian protests against gun violence and government mismanagement in May. AFP/Getty Images
The Russian official's words also referenced recent large-scale anti-government protests inside Serbia, some which gathered in front of the building of Serbia's national broadcaster in Belgrade on Sunday.
These have been billed as 'peace protests' but according to regional media have progressively taken on an anti-government character and anti-government slogans. Some of them have happened with slogans such as "Serbia Against Violence" - and have been focused on gun violence in the wake of recent mass casualty school shootings in Serbia - a rarity for the country's recent history.

The protests have been going strong since mid-May, and people are angry over what they see as government mishandling of recent crises:
Tens of thousands of people have marched through Belgrade, blocking a key bridge in the second large protest since two mass shootings that rattled Serbia and left 17 people dead, including many children.
Protesters gathered in front of the parliament building on Friday before filing by the government’s HQ and on to a highway bridge spanning the Sava River, where evening commuters had to turn their vehicles around to avoid getting stuck. At the head of the column was a black banner reading “Serbia against violence.”
As the demonstrators passed the government buildings, many chanted slogans decrying Serbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vučić, whom they blame for creating an atmosphere of hopelessness and division in the country that they say indirectly led to the mass shootings.
Click to expand...
Additionally Russia's TASS has described the following of recent protests in Serbia:
The first rally was quite peaceful, with practically no anti-government slogans. People were simply congregating in silence in front of the parliamentary building. During the second rally, protesters blocked a bridge across the Sava River and chanted anti-government slogans. The third demonstration had an anti-government character too. According to the Serbian interior ministry, more than 11,000 people took part in these
rallies.
Click to expand...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1662496770251796480
View: https://twitter.com/BalkanInsight/status/1662496770251796480?s=20


Serbia has long been a staunch ally of Russia, however, there's been recent distance and tensions due to the war in Ukraine. Still, Belgrade is generally seen in the West as more oriented toward Russia. It remains that both Slavic countries have long condemned what they see as NATO aggression and expansion, particularly following the 1999 US-NATO bombing campaign over Belgrade.

The Serbian population itself also tends to engage in large demonstrations against NATO and US policies from time to time. In particular the Serb people reject US and international recognition of Kosovo as a sovereign nation, given it historically was an ethnic Serb and Orthodox Christian heartland. This week, President Vucic has ordered Serbian troops to the Kosovo border amid unrest and an unpredictable situation, also as he's condemned the Kosovo government for cracking down on the Serb minority there.
 
jward

jward

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Xhemajl Rexha
@xhemajl_rexha
4h

#Kosovo Police confirm an explosion in North Mitrovica around midnight. The Police Station was attacked, no injuries reported.


National Independent
@NationalIndNews
3h

#BREAKING #Serbia #Kosovo More video footage of Kosovo* police now patroling northern Mitrovica in armored vehicles.


EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
·
3h
Update: US State Department: Secretary of State Blinken called on the Prime Minister of Kosovo and the Serbian President, during phone calls, to stop the escalation between the two countries.
 
jward

jward

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Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan says extra guarantees for enclave’s ethnic Armenians not possible​


By Andrew Osborn and Mike Collett-WhiteJune 23, 2023
6:04 AM CDT
Updated 4 days ago

LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's foreign minister has rejected a demand from Armenia to provide special security guarantees for some 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave ahead of a new round of peace talks, saying they are sufficiently protected.
Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, has been a source of conflict between the two Caucasus neighbours since the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and between ethnic Armenians and Turkic Azeris for well over a century.
After heavy fighting and a Russian-brokered ceasefire, Azerbaijan in 2020 took over areas that had been controlled by ethnic Armenians in and around the mountain enclave.
The two sides have since been discussing a peace deal in which they would agree on borders, settle differences over the enclave, and unfreeze relations.
In what looked like a breakthrough, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was quoted last month as saying Armenia did recognise that Karabakh was part of Azerbaijan, but wanted Baku to provide the guarantees for its ethnic Armenian population.

In an interview with Reuters, however, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said such a guarantee was unnecessary, and the demand amounted to interference in Azerbaijan's affairs.
"We don't accept such a precondition or pretexts from the Republic of Armenia for a number of reasons," he said.
"The most fundamental is the following: this is an internal, sovereign issue. The Azerbaijan constitution and a number of international conventions to which Azerbaijan is party provide all the necessary conditions in order to guarantee the rights of this population."
He said ethnic Armenians could still use and be educated in their own language and preserve their culture if they integrated into Azeri society and state structures like other ethnic and religious minorities.

'SOME PROGRESS'​

Bayramov said there had been "some progress" in peace talks, and that Baku was keen to strike a deal, but also made comments that show how wide the gulf remains before he meets his Armenian counterpart for more talks in Washington next week:
"We believe it was the first time when an Armenian prime minister actually publicly stated this. Why did it take the prime minister two-and-a-half years (since the war ended) to say he actually recognised the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan?"

Bayramov, who was in London to attend a conference about Ukraine's recovery, complained too about the continued presence of thousands of Armenian troops on Azeri territory.
Moscow - which has peacekeepers on the ground - and Washington and the European Union are all trying separately to help ensure lasting peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which have fought two wars since the early 1990s and still have sporadic firefights.
Pashinyan is under pressure at home to protect the rights of the ethnic Armenians living in the enclave as Baku pushes for ethnic Armenian government and military structures to be dissolved and the population to accept Azerbaijani passports.
Tensions have been raised by Baku installing a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor - the only road that connects the enclave with Armenia - following months of disruption caused by people who called themselves Azerbaijani environmental activists.

Baku says the checkpoint is necessary to prevent the smuggling of military supplies into the enclave and illegally-mined materials out. It denies Armenian allegations that it has imposed a blockade that makes life miserable for Karabakh's inhabitants.
Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire banker who was a top official in Karabakh's separatist government until February, on Thursday accused Baku of trying to "ethnically cleanse" the enclave by imposing what he called a goods and energy blockade - allegations that Azerbaijan denies.
Bayramov said a peace deal was within reach if Armenia was ready to take certain steps.
"If there is a will not only to make statements but do some practical steps, I think that potentially it's possible to reach an agreement even earlier than the end of the year," he said.
"But if there's no real readiness ... then it might be later."


Michael helps regional editors oversee initiative coverage from Africa, Middle East and South Asia, and temporarily stepping into a similar role for the Ukraine war. A senior editor he was working on Asia Top News, and lead EMEA Top News with an emphasis on in-depth stories. During his nearly 30 years at Reuters, he held postings in Moscow, Central Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also covered conflicts in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, uprisings in Egypt and the annexation of Crimea, as well as World Cups, Olympic Games and the arts and entertainment sector as senior correspondent, EMEA. He won Reuters editor of the year for 2015 Afghan coverage. Contact: +447990560229
www.reuters.com

Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan says extra guarantees for enclave’s ethnic Armenians not possible

Azerbaijan's foreign minister has rejected a demand from Armenia to provide special security guarantees for some 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave ahead of a new round of peace talks, saying they are sufficiently protected.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 
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