Dr. Rexhep Boja

Interviewer: Selam Alikum WR BA, I greet you on the air live and I welcome you to a new program Without Boundaries. Kosovo, considered the newest independent country in Europe is a culmination of a long chain of events in recreating the map of the Balkan region, which began in the 90's of the previous century. What concerns us in that little republic which declared its Independence on 17 February 2008 is that 90 % of its people are of Albanian Muslim extraction. Kosovo used to be part of an ethnic Albanian province of the Ottoman Empire, when the Ottomans conquered the Albania populated land in the year 1389. It remained part of the Ottoman Empire following the defeat of turkey in the Great War, when the Serbs occupied it so that an Albanian-Muslim state would not rise in the Balkans. Following WWII in 1946, Kosovo was added to the federation of
Yugoslavia and was given significant autonomy. However, during the genocidal rein of Slobodan Milosevic, Kosovo’s autonomy was illegally stripped away in the year 1989 and he continued to rule the province with iron and fire. This forced the Muslim Albanians underground and led to the creation of a secret army, which would later actively engage the Serbian army in open warfare during the 1998-1999 Kosovo War. In the year 1990 Kosovo’s parliament expressed its wish to secede from Serbia and choose Ibrahim Rugova as their president. The Kosovars voted in a referendum in 1990 and voted unanimously to secede from the Yugoslavian federation. However, all of this proved to be in vain, as they did not receive recognition from anyone in the world. The UÇK or KLA (Kosovan Liberation Army) as it came to be known in the media engaged the Serbs in open warfare aimed at ending the savage massacres against the Albanian civilians. The world became aware of the crisis and misery in Kosovo as the Serbs unleashed an indiscriminate backlash against the Albanian freedom fighters. The world powers sought a resolution to the situation and thereafter, NATO launched an aerial assault against Serbia, which forced them to pull out from Kosovo in the year 1999. NATO stationed 17, 000 Solders in Kosovo. Relentless negations concerning the province’s final status were ongoing for more than two years and concluded in setting up a plan for independence, the infamous 'Ahtisaari plan'. This plan was supported by the US and most of EU states, vehemently rejected however, by Serbia and her traditional ally Russia, thus blocking its approval at the U.N.S.C. However, Kosovars were not dismayed and on 17 February 2008, Kosovo proclaimed her independence, thus announcing the arrival of the world’s newest state. Recognition by many countries followed, none of which were from the Arab peninsula (the UAE has now recognized, as of September with Malaysia following suite later that month.) This however, still leaves Kosovo with only a handful of Muslim countries that recognize her right to be independent. In Today’s episode, we will try to understand the consequences and the ramifications of the newest Muslim country in the heart of Europe.