Do you recognise Kosovo?

[RedRalph]

Chain reaction is already starting - from Ria Novosti

MOSCOW, February 18 (RIA Novosti) - Abkhazia intends to ask Russia to recognize its sovereignty, the president of the de facto independent Georgian republic said on Monday.

Asked whether Abkhazia intended to address Russia on the issue of independence in the wake of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of sovereignty on Sunday, Sergei Bagapsh told journalists: "Yes, we do."

Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, another Georgian breakaway republic, declared their independence from Georgia in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and bloody conflicts ensued. Georgia's current leadership has been seeking to recover its influence in the separatist regions and secure international support on the issue.

Both republics have expressed a strong desire to join Russia, and Moscow had hinted even before Kosovo's declaration of independence on Sunday that it may recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"The declaration of sovereignty by Kosovo and its recognition will undoubtedly be taken into account in [Russia's] relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement last week.

South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity, also on a visit to Moscow, told reporters that the two republics would hold talks with other unrecognized entities on efforts to seek independence.

Kokoity said his republic would like to seek independence through Russia's Constitutional Court.

"Two years ago we declared our intention to apply to the Russian Constitutional Court. We have a document on a united Ossetia voluntarily joining the Russian Empire in 1774," he said, adding that there were no documents in existence that confirmed the withdrawal of Ossetia from Russia.

 

[kramerfan86]

Um, nobody really takes these countries seriously...

And unless i have lost the ability to read the question is do you recognize Kosovo, not if you respect Kosovo. I dont respect Kosovo, but I acknowledge its just as independent as any of the other lame micro countries.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Ah cmon, isn't that obvious why? We don't want to be ruled by Beograd anymore, we're sick and tired of it. They've tried to burn half of the balkans in the last 20 years breaking all kinds of international laws and now they expect that to make this independence illegal

Well ya, it is obvious that it is NOT mainly about joining the EU.

 

[deo]

Now you're really confusing me. We won't join the EU before 2015 probably, so what should we do until then? Remain a country without a status, economically backwards? And even when we join the EU, its not like Brussels will be our capital.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Well, maybe I misunderstood. I thought you were saying that the main intention of Kosovar independence was EU membership.

 

[Uncle Anton]

What? Do you think you are at a "football" match?

No... actually, I'm arguing on the internet... largely pointless, but there you have it.

I can only assume from a) your location and b) your username that you live in Canada, and therefore you'd have two perspectives on the Second World War, the single greatest event in Human history....

a) Canadians and Poles fought, bled and died (and earned themselves one HELL of a reputation) in the twentieth century fighting against oppression and were in an objective and foreign perspective EXTREMELY effective in doing so in TWO World Wars.

b) Kosovo's independance may or may not be an exercise in futility. Regardless, the reference to Kosovo's indepence correlating to Germany's Annexation of part of what was in the late 1930s as Czechslovakia is wholly inappopriate.

Are you, Sir, suggesting that nations are invited to violate the sovreignty of other nations if even a miniscule supporting ethicity is supportive to doing so, especially after tens of thousands of your countrymen have decided in the negative? My statement to Winner had nothing to do with Kosovo. It had everything to do with leaving Hitler and the Second World War out of the equation. If you have any issue with this, I suggest you PM me, at which point we can either discuss the issue further or we can summarily ignore each other at our leisure.

 

[philippe]

i love the fact that Tito is spinning so hard in his grave he could be used as an generator for an power plant

 

[klazlo]

I think it is the process what is important:
1. The west screwed up the handling of the Yugoslav conflict back in the 90s
2. They developed some kind of collective remorse for Kosovo later, realizing that they screwed up
3. This collective remorse did not allow for the west to oppose Kosovo's independence, and Kosovo exploited this situation

And I wonder if Kosovo or Serbia will join the EU first?

 

[Sir Matzee]

i love the fact that Tito is spinning so hard in his grave he could be used as an generator for an power plant

Tito was for the autonomy of Kosovo....

Ah cmon, isn't that obvious why? We don't want to be ruled by Beograd anymore, we're sick and tired of it.

Kosovo is SERBIA!!!!
The fact that the majority of population of kosovo is albanian doesn't mean anything. In a true democracy such a decision should depend on vote's power of the whole population of a state and not on the vote's power of a province. The fact serbian population is totally anti kosovo's independence, make it totally illegal.
That's all

 

[cubsfan6506]

If serbia gets to vote on Kosovos independance I declare america should to. Serbia's population should get no say over Kosovo's independance. That is blatant imperialism.

 

[Gabryel Karolin]

Maybe so, but according to international law this declaration is not valid. From this point of view Serbia and Russia are right and the west is wrong.

 

[Mirc]

No, not at all. But it seems it is happening.

Now you're really confusing me. We won't join the EU before 2015 probably, so what should we do until then? Remain a country without a status, economically backwards? And even when we join the EU, its not like Brussels will be our capital.

Kosovo to join the EU in 2015? Are you kidding me?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Now you're really confusing me. We won't join the EU before 2015 probably

I would say before 2115.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

not only do i recognize them, but i offered political dialogue with them.

 

[emzie]

If serbia gets to vote on Kosovos independance I declare america should to. Serbia's population should get no say over Kosovo's independance. That is blatant imperialism.

So if a large part of the population of Quebec moved to Maine, and then voted that Maine should become an independent country, you'd be a-okay with this?

 

[Pannonius]

If serbia gets to vote on Kosovos independance I declare america should to. Serbia's population should get no say over Kosovo's independance. That is blatant imperialism.

How can you be an imperialist in your own country?

 

[kramerfan86]

So if a large part of the population of Quebec moved to Maine, and then voted that Maine should become an independent country, you'd be a-okay with this?

if we tried to cleanse them and they felt threatened under our rule, yes I wouldnt loudly object to them leaving. if they just wanted to leave for the sake of leaving, no I would fight that.

 

[innonimatu]

The West acted on the basis of totally false information that a Bosnia-style ethnic cleansing is taking place.

The "West" acted on the basis of the interests of a few nations, with the purpose of creating another permanently unstable territory in the Balkans, one that required continued "international" military presence and administration, and in that way contributed to justify the continued existence of a military alliance that had lost its original purpose.

If the events of 1999 happened in 2002 the "West" would be "cooperating to fight terrorism" with Serbia, instead of "fighting to protect the Albanians from genocide". Power games...

 

[Ecofarm]

So if a large part of the population of Quebec moved to Maine, and then voted that Maine should become an independent country, you'd be a-okay with this?

@AL_DA: Should not the people of Iraq, Iran, and Kurd have the right to seperate from Sweden from Helsingborg south? Been to downtown helsingborg, Lund, Malmo? It's nothing but kabob and corner stores, except for a small bit of the farmer's market occupied by natives.

---

Are the people of Kosovo from a country other than that which they separated from? Excuse my ignorance Who came from where and when.

 

[Rambuchan]

I think it is the process what is important:
1. The west screwed up the handling of the Yugoslav conflict back in the 90s
2. They developed some kind of collective remorse for Kosovo later, realizing that they screwed up
3. This collective remorse did not allow for the west to oppose Kosovo's independence, and Kosovo exploited this situation

So true.

But it's not just about remorse for Kosovo. It's about the need to follow through on that screwed up plan, rather than backing up, admitting that it was terribly mistaken, and pursuing a new policy position that will bring Serbia in the EU fold.

And I wonder if Kosovo or Serbia will join the EU first?

The way this has been played by the West, it's been a very good way of distancing Serbia from the EU yet further. The stripping away of yet more Serb territory is being read by many in Serbia (with or without coaxing from the radical nationalists) as an ongoing campaign against them by the West. No wonder they are falling into Russia's arms, even though I believe that Serbia joining the EU is an eventual inevitability (for the will to join is there).

The "West" acted on the basis of the interests of a few nations, with the purpose of creating another permanently unstable territory in the Balkans, one that required continued "international" military presence and administration, and in that way contributed to justify the continued existence of a military alliance that had lost its original purpose.

If the events of 1999 happened in 2002 the "West" would be "cooperating to fight terrorism" with Serbia, instead of "fighting to protect the Albanians from genocide". Power games...

And this is quite true too!