Kosovo

I unfortunately don’t get to see as much as I’d like when I travel. In fact, except for students’ faces, dinner and a walk nearby, and my hotel room, I see very little. That said, I’m not a passive traveler sitting around each place I go to. In fact, my job at this stage is to interview candidates for our exchange programs in the US. The great thing about this is that they’re an interesting representational sample of each place and region I go to, and there have been a few notable trends in each of the towns I’ve interviewed in. To stipulate, we generally try to get a feel for our candidates’ interests and perceptions, tolerance and curiosity. However, we don’t ask about racial or religious preferences. Further, we ask whether their parents support their participation.

So what have been the trends? In the town of Vranje, Serbia, several students seemed overly interested in hip-hop and black America. Many said they would like to see blacks and get to know them. In another Serbian town, students spoke of the major intolerance of their country—the hooliganism, intolerance, and resulting violence. (Related xenophobia even led to a French football fan being dragged out of a café in the middle of the day in Belgrade a few weeks back and beaten to death.) Lastly, in Serbia, several students said their parents were divorced. This is quite unusual in this part of the world (though less so in cities), but I was in an unusual part of the region—the mixed Bosniak-Serb town of Novi Pazar. From what I’ve gathered, students’ parents were married before or at the start of the Balkan conflicts (1992-95) there, and as a legacy of Yugoslavia (many people having taken on a “Yugoslav” national identity) and pre-ethno-nationalist political rhetoric. Unfortunately, the war between Serbia and Bosnia tore people apart. Old prejudices were resurrected (or fabricated?) and relationships with friends, neighbors, spouses became subject to political, religious and ethnic disputes. Who’s Christian/Muslim, Serbian/Bosnian? Tragically, likely other family members in this strong kinship-based society pulled couples apart, and thus their children (our student candidates, born between 1993-95) suffer the burden of life without one of their parents at home.

Even worse though is the situation for some where I was this past week. In Prishtina and Prizren, Kosovo, I heard at least half a dozen (if not more) students say they’d lost their fathers. While we never ask why, I spoke to my colleague and driver there, both who said that it was the stress of society, and perhaps more so the 1999 conflict and its aftermath that have made life very tough in Kosovo. Indeed, most of these young deaths are cancer, brought on by stress as a result of unemployment, vices (primarily nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine in this part of the world), a lack of exercise, and the resulting feeling of no integrity, no doubt. I do hope and believe that this next generation who we’re interviewing will change things though. With Euro-Atlantic integration, visa free travel, better education, and stamping out corruption, I think the Western Balkans will see better opportunities for its people.

Kosovo was incredibly interesting overall. Not recognized by Serbia, entering the country from Serbia meant there was no official border or passport examination. As I’d been there before but never for more than half a day, staying five days allowed me to pick up a bit more of the language, and to get a feel for things. For example, my nice hotel in the capital, Prishtina hosted several European bureaucrats. Over breakfast and dinner I was able to see and hear them work on what are myriad projects and measures being taken in what is a very conflicted yet recently independent little country. Indeed, Kosovo only got its independence last year, having been under the auspices of the UN and NATO since 1999. However, the country’s independence is contentious, to say the least. It violated the 1999 UN treaty with Serbia that ended the conflict, which said that Serbia’s territorial integrity shall not be violated. Kosovo, being a former province of Serbia, is thus seen by Serbia and other governments as having declared independence illegally. For the record, I don’t support this notion. Kosovo is 90% ethnic Albanian and moreover, could never be governed by Belgrade again. Yet it matters because next week begins the trial in the UN’s International Court of Justice which seeks to challenge Kosovo’s independence. Serbia has of course made the case, but as an Economist article this week discusses, not only do Serbia’s allies (primarily Russia) have concern about the independence of Kosovo and the precedent it has set, but other countries with separatist minorities are reluctant to see the case condoned. They fear it may incite such minorities with territorial ambitions in their country to push a little harder.

Something else I only saw in Prishtina was the loudly pronounced anti-establishment movement. I say anti-establishment, because the movement, Vetëvendosje (‘Self-determination’) is opposed to a continued international presence but also the government that cooperates with them. I frequently saw graffiti illustrating this, and riots this year which caused material damage to UN vehicles and buildings were incited by Vetëvendosje. Given a EU security force that was established in cooperation with Serbia, they see this as violating their autonomy. I thus saw a good deal of anti-EULEX propaganda.

But Prishtina has actually thrived from the international presence. A decade of international peacekeepers, bureaucrats, and their money has created a layer of society that wouldn’t have existed otherwise—a clear upper class. I heard about nice houses and neighborhoods, but what I clearly saw were the nice hotels, restaurants, and bars that cater to the elite. They are, admittedly, a treat to visit given the lack of such diversity elsewhere in the region. “Culinary cosmopolitanism,” as my travel guide said. Yet I can see why there’s resentment—bureaucrats earning daily what an average person earns monthly is a bit disturbing, particularly when the work they’re doing is not seen as beneficial to the country.

Beyond all this, Prishtina lacks historical character, though is set nicely in a valley and creeping up over hills. Fortunately, the rest of my trip was had in Prizren. Just over the mountains from NW Macedonia, it felt a world away. A Serbian town in medieval times, Prizren thrived under the Ottoman Empire as a trading center. When it became predominantly Albanian, I’m not sure, but the combination of its religious and cultural history, not to mention the setting and architecture, makes it a gem in this part of the world. To briefly elaborate, the town is in a hilly, not yet mountainous area. But built on an incline along a freshwater, mountain like river, it has centuries old Orthodox churches and Islamic mosques. Further, there’s the “carsija,” a Turkish word used in most cities in the region to describe the old market part of town. Right in the center along the river, the carsija has 19th and early 20th century structures housing excellent restaurants and shops. Right near the city library where we were working was an excellent sweet shop with more kinds of baklava than I’d ever seen! (I was only able to try a couple of kinds…)

Beyond its lengthy history, Prizren is famous for hosting the “League of Prizren” in 1878. The League was a coming together of Albanian intellectuals at the time, who attempted to lay out an Albanian state from the provinces of the then disintegrating Ottoman Empire. In the end they were unsuccessful, but the building and its museum are a reminder of this event and source of pride for Albanians.

Unfortunately, Prizren was subject to a great deal of vandalism in March 2004 during significant rioting and conflict throughout Kosovo. Nearly three dozen people died in the country, though none in Prizren. But the town’s Orthodox churches and monasteries suffered greatly. One up above the town near the fortress looks intact from below, but an image from above shows quite the contrary. Unfortunately, several churches bore this fate, and are now barb-wired off and not used. Not to mention the Serbs who lived there previously have all but left.

Yet as I returned to Skopje the other night, we drove through what is a Serb enclave in southern Kosovo (most Serbs live in the north of the country). I’d heard positively about the area before, as its natural beauty is splendid and the ski area there is an example of Serbs and Albanians living cooperatively. Yet a Ukrainian KFOR (NATO military) contingency in the middle of the village was a reminder of the delicate peace and safety that exists in the country. Indeed, if five years after the first peace (1999) there was such rioting and killing as there was in 2004, it seems a possibility that with Serbia bullying the country, another five years later it could happen again.

Sandzak & Le Salad Macedoine

Oh, how time is flying! Am on the road this week working quite intensely, but wanted to post from my current location in Novi Pazar in southwest Serbia, just north of Kosovo. I came via Uzice, a town three hours away in the Zlatibor region. The town itself was nothing impressive, but the Zlatibor area is one of rolling hills, pastures and forests, resting atop a bed of limestone. Picturesque and pleasant to the eye, it reminded me greatly of the Ohio River Valley and southern Indiana. My colleague and I were fortunate to stay in an acquaintance’s weekend house, which was isolated and provided fresh air, not to mention an escape from the swine flu epidemic that was hitting that town hard (two deaths there, unfortunately). We were interviewing our candidates in the local high school, but no one else was there—schools are closed all week throughout the country.

But we came to Novi Pazar in the Sandzak region a few days ago and have been quite busy, but of course I’ve had a look around. Novi Pazar is, along with Novi Sad and northern Serbia’s Vojvodina region (an area mixed with Serbs, Hungarians, Germans, and others), the most multicultural and diverse part of Serbia. It has retained its Ottoman character and is predominantly Muslim. Active Mosques abound, and most of the Muslims are Bosniaks (Slavs who converted to Islam), though there are apparently still Turkish and Albanian minorities, also Muslims. Though it’s hard to say about the former—they’ve mixed in well over the last century (and before) and while I’ve seen plenty of Turkish surnames, the students all say they speak Serbian/Bosnian at home. Regardless, my colleague is actually from here, and his opinion is that this town’s diversity and chaos creates some of the most eccentric people in Serbia. Based on his character and others I’ve met so far, I might have to agree!

I hope to see one of the famous monasteries in the coming days, but that might be tough given my schedule. However, I want to post a blog below that I wrote up last week but just never got put up. It is…


Le Salad Macedoine

Upon departing from the Skopje bus station recently, I sat down in my seat and looked at the departure signs in front of my bus and the one next to us. My bus’ final destination was Belgrade, capital of Serbia, and the one next to me was Pristina, capital of Kosovo. I thought to myself “how ironic…only in Macedonia.” This is because while the “battle of Kosovo” may have originally occurred in 1389, over 600 years later it continues in a different fashion. Indeed, just a decade ago (1999) the Serbian military under Slobodan Milosevic occupied Kosovo and retaliated to an intense US led NATO attack. While Milosevic’s policies were oppressive at best and violently genocidal at worst (though genocide is a delicate word and I’m reluctant to use it), it was the NATO attack—which was the first US attack on a European city/country since WWII—that greatly escalated the conflict; it made it a war. The small country of Macedonia, right next door to both, was affected in another way—250,000 refugees poured into the country from Kosovo. They came because Macedonia was called upon to open its borders and let them in, and because there’s a significant Albanian minority right here in Macedonia.

I won’t continue with the history of that conflict, but to say that Macedonia is unique because of its strong Albanian minority (who became stronger after being emboldened from 1999-2001) and multiculturalism overall, and as my experience in Serbia recently showed me, perhaps more at odds with their previous bedfellows than before. This is because Macedonia is now a bi-national state, with the Albanian minority wielding much greater influence than ten years ago. For example, Macedonia settled a border dispute and recognized Kosovo’s independence two weeks back. It was wise and progressive, in my opinion, but it infuriated Serbia. Their foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic (a Harvard Kennedy School alum to note), threatened to rescind their support for Macedonia, as well as their ambassador in Skopje.

To add to the distance at which Macedonia puts itself from Serbia, the name dispute with Greece not only provokes the Greeks, but some Serbs as well. I testify to this after speaking to some Serbian students last week. To stipulate, Serbs are generally close with Greece. In regards to Macedonia, in the early and late 20th century, they conspired to divide it, and did in some ways-the Kingdom of and then SFR Yugoslavia occupied/possessed Vardar Macedonia from the 1930s to the 1990s, and Greece took Aegean Macedonia and made it what is most of northern Greece today. Anyhow, more recently, post-SFRY, even Slobodan Milosevic’s son was known to have suggested dividing Macedonia again, having apparently been annoyed with having an extra border between his own country and Greece.

But what I discussed with some Serbian students was their opinion that Macedonia is fabricating its history and should come to terms with the reality that they are a rather mixed lot, and certainly not the descendants of Alexander the Great. To some extent they have a fair point—it really is an absurd and irredentist notion that modern Macedonians, after millennia of invading tribes and groups, primarily the Slavs, are anything like the ancient peoples of pre-Christian Macedon. Yet identity is fluid and no one should be able to tell another who they are. This may seem logical and/or irrelevant, but here in Macedonia it’s at the fore of the country’s slow accession into NATO and the EU. That is (and which I’ve discussed before), Greece blocked Macedonia joining NATO in April 2008 because they dispute the country’s name, calling it FYROM and demanding it change. International mediators have tried unsuccessfully to persuade the two countries to find a resolution, but neither side has compromised. Hilary Clinton may get involved, sources say. Regardless, Macedonia is the underdog and has less leverage. But that’s not to say they don’t have an incentive—the EU just gave the country a green light to begin EU accession talks, but with the implicit stipulation that they shore things up with the Greeks. As one guy on the news half joked, they thus need to decide whether they’ll give their “arm or their head” for their future.

The ruling government has thus thought to put it to a referendum, yet some ethnic Albanian politicians have not only threatened to boycott that, but go it alone in joining the EU and NATO. Although this isn’t possible—only nations, not groups of people within them—can join such organizations, it’s caused quite a stir. Regardless, I think the entire situation, not to mention the upcoming visa liberalization which will allow Macedonian citizens to travel freely in the EU Schengen countries, has made some in the country realize that perhaps they need to swallow their pride and say to heck with it! Joining the EU is huge for little Macedonia, as it gives them even greater autonomy and once they’re in they have myriad opportunities within other EU countries for education, travel, and business. Indeed, a market of 450 million is far larger than their current trade partners (mostly neighboring countries) tally up to.

Anyhow, the Balkans are nowhere near short of action these days, and I’m majorly on the road in coming weeks. Currently en route to Uzice and Novi Pazar, Serbia, then off to Kosovo, Macedonia, and wrapping up the testing and interviewing season in Bulgaria just before Christmas. More on down the road!