Conflict in Kosovo on the Agenda of the Antalia Summit

When Nenad Kikic, Bosniac converted into a Serb, raised his hand to oppose the Turkish proposal, many political directors present at the table druing the preparatory talks, thought that the Balkan Summit in Antalia was going to be a complete failure. A paragraph about Kosovo was discussed, that the Serb diplomat declared he would not like to see in any form in the final document. "We are giving our chiefs a project-statement overflowing with brackets", declared Turkish ambassador Hikmet Alp, with resignation, showing the draft document which for two days stirred the debate among the gathered diplomats in the tourist town of Asia Minor. A very bad beginning for the second meeting of prime ministers of the Balkan states, while on the other hand, several hundred kilometres towards the north, American representative Richard Holbrooke, faced with Yugoslav president Milosevic, was struggling against the "zero option" - NATO air strikes.

On 11 and 12 October, five prime ministers of the Balkan states, met in Antalia in Turkey in order to pursue initiatives of regional cooperation on the high level, opened in Sofia and continued at the last year's summit in Crete. With the exception of Albanian prime minister Pandeli Majko, who did not participate at the summit in order to avoid a possible meeting with his Yugoslav colleague in the conditions of the crisis in Kosovo, all the other prime ministers advocated for 48 hours the not very realitic idea that the Balkan was capable to ensure cooperation and internal stability. Gathered at the Talija congress centre, prime ministers of the Balkan states and their foreign ministers conducted a debate about a two-page text which had for days blocked the work of political directors of these countries gathered before the summit.

The entire other part was devoted to bilateral meetings and semi-hypocritical and hypocritical declarations of good wishes for peace and close cooperation, although between sessions, large TV screens set in the hall of the congress centre broadcast disturbing chronicles made by American CNN about the talks between Holbrooke and Milosevic and taking off and landing of NATO planes which were getting ready to throw tons of bombs on Serbia.

In fact, the only document in writing which officially testifies what was accomplished in Antalia was the final declaration of the summit which reflected all the stands of Balkan leaders concerning the project of regional cooperation. Based on the principle of consensus, this declaration which was considered to be the basic document of the whole process, had passed through the debate which often brought the Summit to the verge of catastrophe. A few days before the meeting, Albania officially addressed a demand to the Turkish government to postpone the event. Turkey deserved a successful and efficient summit which would yield results, it was said to the Turkish ambassador in Tirana via diplomatic channels. Therefore, it was said further on in the Albanian stand, in view of the development of the crisis in Kosovo and the possibility of military intervention against Belgrade, it was proposed that the meeting of presidents or prime ministers in the Balkans be postponed. The Albanian party in this way signalled that representation of Albania in Antalia on the high was questionable.

In fact, the proposal for postponement of the Summit had also a lot to do with internal political developments in Albania. The new government headed by 31-year old Pandeli Majko had just been formed. Sources close to the prime minister declared that the prime minister did not wish to travel to Antalia and sit at the table with Milosevic or Bulatovic. This refusal of Majko arrived after the declaration of the president of the Republic, Rexhep Maidani, who had made it clear that he had no intention to travel to the Summit in Antalia after the turmoil caused a year ago by the presence of prime minister Fatos Nano at the previous Summit in Crete and his meeting with Milosevic.

On the other hand, this was also an indirect reaction of Tirana to the fact that the draft of the final declaration did not include the problem of Kosovo. A few days later, when the discussion about the draft declaration started, it became clear that Kosovo, carefully avoided in the paragraphs drafted by Turkey, would be the clutch which would keep the destiny of the Summit uncertain to the very end. Along with the Serbian-Macedonian clash concerning the role of NATO in the region, along with the Greek-Turkish tension concerning the leadership in Balkan processes, the crisis in Kosovo would take the time and energy of the entire Summit, but was solved in the last minute just as news arrived about the agreement between Milosevic and Holbrooke on verification mission.

Indeed, inclusion of the problem of Kosovo in the official document of the Summit on Antalia would hardly have been accompliahed if the American envoy in Belgrade had not managed to to eliminate NATO air-strikes on Serbian military targets. Yugoslav stand on the eve of the Summit, and statements of prime minister Bulatovic anticipated that they would persist with the radical attitude to developments in Kosovo. Faced with the stands of Albanian foreign minister Milo who declared that he would not put his signature on a text which did not contain a single word on the Kosovo crisis, the Yugoslav position would have led to failure of the meeting and left a bitter impression primarily on its hosts.

That is how the Albanian-Yugoslav conflict turned into the main topic behind the scenes of the meeting, the protagonists of which were always neighbouring rivals Greece and Turkey. Simitis and Jilmaz could not be happy while shaking hands in front of cameras after a long pause, since in the horizon stood the constant conflict between Tirana and Belgrade fuelled by extremely opposed stands but also by the terrible shadow of NATO planes which flew in the skies above the Balkans. Nevertheless, inclusion of a paragraph on Kosovo in the final document of the Summit in Antalia, which demanded interruption of combats in Kosovo, return of refugees to their homes, permission for humanitarian missions to work and complete implementation of Security Council Resolution 1199 on this crisis, caused a fall of temperature between the parties and a bad end for the second official meeting of leaders of the Balkans was avoided.

The Summit in Antalia has in the last minute managed to avoid failure of Balkan efforts for creation of an acceptable climate for all. However, nobody can guarantee that next year the meeting which will take place in Romania will not be blocked by one of the numerous crises which continue to take peace as their hostage in the Balkans.

AIM Tirana

Arben KOLA