With the recent tension on the borders of Kosovo and Serbia, everyone is worried about the new Balkan war.
The tension that began with the Kosovo government banning entry to the country with Serbian IDs and passports, starting on August 1, this year;
Bring the region to the brink of a new war.
According to this procedure, Serbs who enter Kosovo will be given an entry document valid for 90 days.
Hours before the new implementation came into effect, Serbs in northern Kosovo began erecting roadblocks.
Those Serbs who see themselves as more loyal to Serbia even though they are citizens of Kosovo actually represent a serious problem for Kosovo, a country whose independence has not been ratified by the United Nations, yet - even with this incident - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic reiterated his claim that Kosovo is not an independent country and that it is part of Serbia.
In the face of this Kosovo decision, the Serbs in Kosovo closed the border crossings and attacked some Albanians;
causing a serious spark.
In this tense atmosphere, the NATO force in Kosovo (the guarantor of the current situation between the two countries or the two countries) announced that it is closely following the situation, and is ready to intervene if stability is threatened.
This tension subsided for the time being when the Kosovo government announced that the decision, which was to be implemented on August 1, requiring everyone living in Kosovo - including Serbs - to obtain a Kosovo identity card and license plate;
It may be postponed until the 1st of September.
Serbia does not recognize the independence of Kosovo, and a kind of nationalism is active in the country, believing that Kosovo is part of Greater Serbia.
Today, Kosovo is recognized as an independent state by 117 countries, while the majority of the population in Kosovo are Albanians, and its capital is Pristina, with a population of about 1.8 million people.
No one can forget how Serbian nationalism - which considers Kosovo to be part of Serbia - cost a bloody war between the states that emerged after the collapse of Yugoslavia.
With the intervention of NATO and the intervention of many other countries, relative peace and stability were achieved, but the problems of how to achieve this stability among the peoples living on a "mosaic" have not been fully resolved.
Ottoman law provided the millet system in which these ethnic and religious groups could live together in peace, and when the Ottoman Empire disintegrated the idea of nationalism entered the minds of all these cultural elements, and it became difficult to keep them together
Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo were created, but with people from other ethnic groups and regions still present within each, and no separation exactly matches the ethnic groups.
Peoples form a tangled mosaic here, and a complete separation cannot be made on this mosaic, even in the smallest unit, and contracts seeking stability are based on mistrust between the two parties.
When we look at the events that took place first in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s, then between Kosovo and Serbia, this mosaic reminds us of the powerful fault line that can take action at any moment in central Europe.
Historically, ethnic, religious and cultural mosaics in the Balkans still prevail, and for centuries this diversity was preserved in the Ottoman lands.
The Ottoman law provided the millet system in which these ethnic and religious groups could live together in peace.
When the Ottoman Empire disintegrated, the idea of nationalism entered the minds of all these cultural elements, and it became difficult to keep them together, and the Balkans suddenly turned into a competitive arena for international powers;
Therefore the event should not be seen as the inadequacy or unwillingness of these peoples to live together;
Russia has always wanted to use the Serbian presence there as a way to expand its influence.
Today, in an environment where the Ukraine crisis is in question, such a conflict can be expected to be used and assessed as an opportunity to wage proxy war within Europe.
Of course, there are other obstacles to doing so;
Such a proxy war would have no benefits that would immediately impress the people or state of Serbia.
Indeed, in this last event;
Serbian President Vucic declared that no one, especially Russia, would be a proxy in these disputes.
With an agreement reached, Vucic stated that "the edge of disaster is over", "The worst-case scenario has been avoided. Some clearly want to see Russia's attack on Ukraine as an opportunity. They are trying to show Serbia as dependent on Russia, and portray Vucic as the little Putin who gets a response." did the West.
Turkey adopted this approach from the beginning, saw the Balkans with its ethnic nature, respected the right of every individual to live in freedom and dignity, stood against the genocide of Bosnians in Bosnia and Herzegovina, stood by the Bosnian people with its people and state, and was the first to recognize the independence of Kosovo and provide it with all kinds of support.
On the other hand, European countries and the United States did not want to leave this field to Russia.
In addition, the Muslim population living in these lands has always had to face the eternal Crusader sentiments of Europe.
In fact, even the word Balkans directly evokes the experience of Islamic countries, since the Islamic administration never tried to carry out ethnic cleansing here, this place has always been a cultural mosaic, yet the Ottoman administration had such an opportunity, but it never thought of doing so , some orientalists even described the multicultural policy of the Ottoman Empire as a weakness because it led to a mosaic society.
The characterization of vulnerability is also expressed as the inability of Islam to create a homogeneous society.
When viewed properly, it can be seen that this characterization, in fact, emphasizes a very positive characteristic of the Ottoman Empire;
As it is important for the society to be homogeneous with its plurality and diversity, but it does not have to be similar, as it is criticism on the surface, but it is a great advantage that distinguished the Ottoman Empire.
However, despite this inadvertently acknowledged virtue, the prevailing understanding in Europe is strictly Orientalist;
It is for this reason and this twisted understanding that Europe is believed to have been a bystander to the attempted genocide against Muslims in the Bosnia and Herzegovina war that began in the 1990s.
It is impossible for the Bosnians to forget that the Srebrenica genocide took place under the watchful eye of Dutch UN soldiers.
As a matter of fact, today's balance of power and understanding of international law is unable to produce a solution that satisfies all parties in keeping the multicultural society together in the Balkans.
The fact that some international powers want to see this place as a conflict zone, or a proxy war zone, the Balkans should never be considered a proxy war zone.
On the other hand, each people who lives here must respect the right of the other to self-determination, and unless there is a larger umbrella such as the European Union, the Ottomans or Yugoslavia that can unite all these peoples;
It is essential that these peoples respect each other's will for independence.
Turkey adopted this approach from the beginning, saw the Balkans with its ethnic nature, respected the right of every individual to live in freedom and dignity, stood against the genocide of Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and stood by the Bosnian people with its people and state.
It was the first to recognize the independence of Kosovo and to give it all kinds of support.
However, Turkey also knew that maintaining stability here would only be possible through mutual dialogue and understanding between all parties, and that is why, despite its involvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, it continued a very intense economic and political dialogue with Serbia.
On the occasion of this latest incident, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met his Serbian and Kosovar counterparts Selajovic Schwartz, and called for the need to adopt common sense on both sides.
Cavusoglu's words - which were reflected in the press - came as follows: "Turkey attaches permanent importance to the peace and stability of the Balkans, and new tensions will not help anyone, and we are ready to do our part in easing tensions."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - who believes that ensuring stability in the region will be achieved through the development and strengthening of these relations - visited Serbia on October 7-8, 2019, and signed 9 new cooperation agreements.
While visiting Serbia with a large group of businessmen, Erdogan made a mass inauguration of some large Turkish investments there.
He laid the foundations of the Sremska Raja-Kuzmin section of the Belgrade-Sarajevo highway, which will connect Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, two regional states with which Turkey has close ties.
In his speeches, Erdogan stated that he expected this highway project to play an important role in maintaining peace and stability in the Balkans, and said that it would make an important contribution to the rapprochement and strengthening of cooperation between the Serbian and Bosnian peoples, and that it was not just an investment in transportation.
This message that no one expected was actually Turkey's long-standing policy of cooperation for peace and stability.
On this occasion, the Serbian president said, "Since 1945 there has been an almost invisible barrier connecting the cities of Sarajevo and Belgrade."
"While nothing is being done about this issue, this project that came to life on the initiative of President Erdogan aims to contribute to regional peace, increase bilateral trade and better introduce people to each other," he added.
Thus, Erdogan, who visited Serbia with the same understanding in 2017, demonstrated the importance of extending an olive branch and maintaining relations not only with the Bosnian side but also with the other side for the sake of peace.
Once again, during his visit, he set the long-term goal of trade between the two countries at $5 billion, and he was accompanied by a large number of businessmen, and currently nearly a thousand Turkish companies operate in Serbia.
This scene actually shows that Turkey is a country that has a real and accurate project and vision to ensure and maintain stability in the region, and the Balkans should not be seen as an alternative location for anyone's power or war.
Many ethnic and cultural communities in the Balkans have managed to coexist in a mosaic of several centuries, and there are no obstacles for them to live today, as long as others do not stand in the way of private wars of influence.