Banjska and nationwide security

2024-09-23 18:07:00, Opinione Ekrem Spahiu

Ekrem Spahiu

As today one year ago, the Serbian paramilitary forces, sufficiently planned in the Belgrade headquarters in terms of numbers, armament, equipment, reserves, support and combat capability, carried out the attack on the sovereign security forces of Kosovo in Banjska, with the aim of opening a war front with the involvement of the entire military, information and police machinery of Serbia, to justify the reoccupation of Kosovo, or at least of its northern part.

For many years, this military action was preceded by a feverish political and diplomatic campaign, calculated with great detail and care, to overturn the relations of Serbia and Kosovo in the international opinion. The aim of this political and diplomatic campaign was, is and continues to be to undo the NATO air campaign in March 1999, carried out with the sole motive of stopping the ethnic cleansing and humanitarian disaster that was unfolding in Kosovo at that time, that is to is re-dimensioned in international public and diplomatic opinion as if Serbia was the victim of ethnic cleansing, not Kosovo.

The attack on Banjska failed. But the plans in the Belgrade headquarters are in their drawers for other alternative versions of this attack, with paramilitary, hybrid or military forms, or woven together.

For this reason, Serbian diplomacy carried out the campaign of self-victimization with intensity. In fact, it is deepening and will deepen.

Banjska and nationwide security

These days, that is exactly on the eve of the anniversary of the Serbian attack in Banjska, the President of Serbia Vu?i?, declared that he can declare Kosovo an occupied territory. So, the Belgrade staff pulled out another card from the drawers and this card, as the international media write, "is one option, among many, that Vucic is considering".

"On the table is the option of declaring the occupation of a part of the territory of the Republic of Serbia, which brings many consequences, including preparations for the return of the occupied areas, due to the terror that our people in Kosovo have been facing for years. ", Serbian media reports.

Of course, the strategies, tactics and political, diplomatic and military actions of Serbia are under the monitoring of the West and, in this context, also of Kosovo and Albania. But the issue should be seen even more widely than that and exactly what are and should be the most efficient political, diplomatic and military strategies, tactics and actions of Kosovo and Albania, in order not to remain in the role of "lightning rod". but in a strong active role, harmonized within and among them, as well as with the West.

Foreign policies cannot be successful if they are not stable and permanent. For example, the policy of national unification cannot and should not remain a policy to win political elections. Rather, it should be a consistent policy. Moreover, Albania is obliged by the constitution to do this, and Kosovo is obliged as a legitimate eternal dream. This policy should not be reduced to an ordinary slogan, or to issues of joint political meetings for political consumption.

Banjska and nationwide security

On the other hand, foreign policies cannot be successful when they are not strongly supported with all possible resources and instruments. Belgrade prepares militarily, not only with propaganda, but also concretely, with a well-calculated number of forces and means.

The monitoring and presence of the West towards these revanchist measures is certainly a powerful factor in Albanian national security, but it is not the whole solution. Just as the West's persuasions and concessions to Serbia "not to provoke it as a source of conflict for the benefit of Russia", are not a solution.

The solution lies precisely, and in the first place, in the Albanian factors, in the inter-Albanian political and diplomatic cohesion for nationwide security issues, in the growth and strengthening of all instruments at the level that guarantee this security.

Nationwide security, although a new term in the field of security, in fact, is an early integral part of the security policies of serious states, regardless of their political regimes. Albania and Kosovo have no reason to remain shy to express and fulfill this security obligation.

Meanwhile, national security, which is talked about and written about so much, is not a nationalist demand, but a standard applied by every democratic state. In fact, it is a standard that the Western Alliance also requires of each country.