KOSOVO CRISIS BRINGS TENSION IN THE TURKEY-GREECE-ALBANIA RELATIONSHIP

AIM TIRANA, MAY 6, 1999

On March 24th in the evening, a few minutes before the bombardment started, the American President Clinton mentioned the reasons of NATO's bombardment against Yugoslavia, among which is the objective of avoiding a clash between Turkey and Greece that the crisis in Kosovo might cause. This arose discontent and protests in Athens. The Greek Prime Minister, Simitis and the President, Stefanopulos, objected the American President. As a matter of fact, NATO's air strikes and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, for more than one month, were also accompanied by an increasing tension in the relationship between the two Balcan members of NATO, as well as in their relations with Albania.

The conflict in Kosovo, besides the threat for a possible war with Serbia and an enormous refugee exodus, brought about new troubles to the Albanian Government in relation to its foreign politics and equilibrium with Ankara and Athens. Albanians noticed that, besides the traditional disagreements in mutual matters between Turkey and Greece, the distance between them increased due to the Kosovo crisis and they positioned themselves differently in the Albanian issue.

A small and unstabilized country like Albania, which was among the first Eastern countries to apply for the membership in NATO, cannot understand the situation where Athens comes against NATO bombardments, while Turkey, through its Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, warns that "a war situation between Turkey and Greece, due to the Kosovo issue, might be possible if Greece supports the Serbs by abandoning and even fighting NATO".

It is becoming more and more difficult for the Tirana Government to apply its equidistance politics, while trying to satisfy the goat and the cabbage. On March 3rd Turkey had promised Premier Majko, during his visit in Ankara that, a threatening of the Albanian borders by Serbia will be a threatening of the Turkish borders. Thus Turkey immediately became a supporter of NATO's air strikes. On the other side, during Premier Majko's visit on March 19th, Greece has asked for explanations about the role of Turkey in the construction of the military-naval base of Pashaliman (hence an unusual declaration by the Albanian Premier in the PASOK Congress that no foreign soldier will attack Greece from Albania). Thus, Greece was the only ally that objected NATO bombardment.

The position of Greece in such a cardinal issue for the Albanian politics and national interest, seems to have put the socialist government of Tirana in a disfavourable position, which on its part has closer relations to the socialist government of Greece than the previous Albanian Democratic Party government had.

The refugee crisis, caused by Milloschevic's revenge towards NATO bombardment, did also increase the difference between Ankara and Athens positions in the current gravest problem of the Albanian Government. Turkey expressed its willingness to host 20 thousand refugees. President Demirel himself came to Tirana on April 11th to demonstrate the high level of support. President Clinton officially thanked the Turkish President about Turkey's position towards Kosovo issue and about his personal interest. Greece appeared to be withdrawn from the idea of hosting Kosovar refugees. They immediately sent to Tirana their Foreign Minister, Papandreu, who presented a request to the Albanian Government saying that the refugees should by all means stay in Albania, but they should not be sent to South Albania as the Greek minority lives there.

The diplomatic carelessness of Greece to publicly announce this unmotivated request addressed to the Albanian Government not to put Kosovar refugees in the South because a Greek minority is living there, confused Tirana even more. The Greek interference, through its Foreign Minister, was unclear from the juridical viewpoint as they were telling a sovereign state where to put its refugees. But it was unclear even from the practical viewpoint, as the entrance of over 300 thousand refugees obliged the poor Albanian Government to distribute them in all Albania. When Papandreu went back to Athens, the Premier Simitis hurried to organize a meeting with the association of the Greek minority in Albania, where he declared that Tirana has assured Athens not to accomodate Kosovar refugees in the South of the country.

Majko Government followed the policy "keep silent", but the Chairman of the parliamentary group of the Socialist Party, Gramoz Ruci, publicly critized Greece for interfering in the internal affairs. This had never happened with the Socialist Party before, despite the not-very-rare incidents in the Albanian-Greek relations. A slight breakage became evident even in the fact that, for the first time, the left-hand press or the press nearer to the government criticized the position of the Greek Government.

As frequently happening in the Albanian politics, the opposition, Democratic Party, took advantage of the situation and criticized the Greek position about Kosovars' settlement in Albania. Of course they also criticized the Albanian Government for "not protecting the national dignity".

Nevertheless, the Government of Tirana, being aware of the importance of the cooperation with Greece, extended (in April) for the fourth time the mandate of the Greek military unit present in Albanian territory since 1997, based on a mutual agreement with the Government of the socialist ex-Premier, Fatos Nano.

The presence of emotions in the Balcan diplomacy became obvious by the phenomenon of expelling Albanian emigrants from Greece, who went over a thousand in number in the third week of April. Emigrants coming back were shocked not by the fact that they were being expelled, but by the words the border police of a NATO member said: "Go to Clinton, go to NATO". This brought back the old impression that each time Athens has problems with the Albanian Government, it uses "the brooms" policy, i.e. operations of expelling Albanian emigrants from Greece. Majko Government did not reply this time either, while the opposition requested from the Greek Government to stop this expelling operation.

Kosovo crisis and the position taken by various countries in this aspect has become a more delicate issue for Albanians. This cannot be neglected by the political parties in Albania, which want to stay or come to power. Many Albanians, while outering their approval for the USA and NATO involvement in the Kosovo issue, they suspect the position of Greece in the present conflict.

Meanwhile, Turkey's image in Albania remains positive and it does not change, despite the fact who is in power in Tirana or in Ankara. The Albanian press has advertised the Turkish declarations that, in case international ground forces will be decided to enter Kosovo, Turkey is willing to join them. In fact, it might be said that the Kosovo crisis has reactivated speculations related to the Turkish role in the Balcan. Turkey appears to be the most loyal NATO ally in comparison to the hesitating and objecting positions of Greece and Italy.

Coming back to Greece, an increase in the Greek aid to the Kosovar refugees in Albania and the permission granted to Albanian emigrants to demonstrate in Athens against Serbia and for NATO, seems to be insufficient to get rid of the suspicion in Tirana. Similiarly, the silence of Tirana authorities about these inter-Balcan relationship developments, cannot hide the new tension already present in the Turkey-Greece-Albania relationship.

SHABAN MURATI (AIM)