Kosovo, the Impossible Nation-State

Inside Kacanik, Kosovo's Jihadist Capital

Infamous son: Lavdrim Muhaxheri, from Kacanik, in Syria

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Tiny town boasts only 30,000 people, yet two dozen local men have gone to fight jihad in Iraq and Syria

Nestling in a wooded valley that its citizens laid their lives down to defend, the town of Kacanik in southern Kosovo is fiercely proud of its war dead.

Well-kept cemeteries include nearly 100 victims of Serb-led ethnic cleansing in 1999, while in the town centre, a statue clutching an RPG honours fallen members of Brigade 162 of the Kosovan Liberation Army.

But a decade and a half on from the war that brought about Kosovo's independence, there is rather less pride in Kacanik's new crop of warriors.

In the last three years, some 24 local menfolk have gone to fight for jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, giving the town of just 30,000 people an unwanted reputation as the jihadist capital of the Balkans.

To add to the sense of shame, one of them, a 25-year-old recruiter named Lavdrim Muhaxheri, has committed atrocities as gruesome as any of those carried out in Kacanik in 1999, when British troops unearthed a mass grave containing 81 bodies.

Last summer, in an act that sent shockwaves across Kosovo, Muhaxheri posted Facebook pictures of himself apparently beheading another man suspected of spying against the Islamic State. Another shows him executing a Syrian man using an RPG. Read on and comment » | Colin Freeman, Chief Foreign Correspondent | Sunday, August 23, 2015

Isis: Threat on Balkans to 'Avenge Muslims'

ANSAMED: 'In Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania we will arrive with explosives'

TIRANA - The Balkans are being threatened by Isis, which has announced it wants ''revenge for the humiliation suffered by Muslims in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia''. ''We will arrive with explosives'', said the Albanian national Abu Muqatil (Al Kosovi), a Kosovan Islamic militant[s] who claims to represent the jihadist group in the region.

In a long video released by Al Hayat media center, the main 'production house' of the terror organization born in Syria and Iraq, the announcement of future attacks in the Balkan region is entrusted to Albanian-language militants. » | Friday, June 05, 2015

Russian View: Say What? Obama Claims 'Iraq Invasion Not as Bad as Crimea'

Barack Obama has declared the Kiev uprising a moral victory, Crimea's vote a sham and Russia a brute aggressor, that must be confronted. To prove his points the President used examples... including US achievements in Iraq. RT's Gayane Chichakyan takes a look at the narrative being put forward by the White House.

Putin's Comparison to Kosovo 'Bizarre'

Un islamiste suisse tue trois personnes en Turquie

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Un Suisse originaire du Kosovo a abattu trois personnes, dont un gendarme à un barrage, avant d'être capturé par les forces de l'ordre turques.

Un citoyen suisse originaire du Kosovo a été arrêté en Turquie après le meurtre de trois personnes, dont un gendarme, dans la province anatolienne de Niğde la semaine passée, a annoncé la police . » | Par Pascal Schmuck, Zurich | mardi 25 mars 2014

Whose Side Is This Codger On? 'US Thinks It's Superior, Rules Only Apply to Inferior Nations' – Ex-Australian PM

The US has been accused of double standards for supporting Kosovo's secession while calling Crimea's illegal. We talked to former Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, to clarify the contradiction in the US/EU positions on secession.

We've Got Enough Criminals So Keep Kosovo Out of Europe, Says Ukip MEP
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A senior Ukip politician has said Kosovo should not be allowed to join the European Union because Britain "already has enough" criminals.

Gerard Batten, a Ukip MEP, said people from the "lawless" country should not get an open door to come to Britain.

"We already have plenty of criminals from Kosovo in London, despite the fact it's not yet a member of the EU," he said.

"EU entry would enable yet more to come. We already have enough, thank you very much."

Mr Batten later told The Daily Telegraph: "UKIP opposes the entry of all new states to the EU because it gives their citizens automatic entry to Britiain.

"Kosovo is a particularly bad example because it is a poor, lawless state with rampant criminality. We don't want to give an open door invite to more criminals from Kosovo, we have enough already. Just look at the crime statistics for Romanians in London for example." » | Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent | Friday, April 19, 2013

Kosovo Orders Ban on Headscarves in Schools
Kosovo is one of Europe's majority Muslim countries, but now an administrative order has been issued banning the wearing of headscarves in schools. When one student refused to remove her headscarf, she was expelled. Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan reports.

The Split Within: Two Years On Since Kosovo Declared Independence

Saying ‘No’ to Kosovo Independence
BBC: Four EU countries, Romania, Cyprus, Slovakia and Spain, have refused to recognise Kosovo as an independent state.

Here, Euro MPs from all four countries explain their concerns about Kosovo's step forward. Saying 'No' to Kosovo Independence >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Obama? A Mere “Novice”!
Photo of Hillary Clinton courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: Hillary Clinton has dismissed Barack Obama, the Democratic frontrunner, as a novice, as she sought to press her claims to be the next US commander-in-chief.

She said that he would need a "foreign policy instruction manual" as president.

Flanked by senior retired military officials, including Gen Wesley Clark, the former Nato commander, Mrs Clinton said that she was best qualified to lead the nation in troubled times, when the US was facing two wars, the threat of terrorism and the challenges of dealing with Cuba, Kosovo, Iran and North Korea. Hillary Clinton attacks Obama's 'naivety' >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington

THE TELEGRAPH:
Is Barack Obama getting too cocky?

THE TELEGRAPH:
Barack Obama tribal photo…

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Crazy Is as Crazy Does
EUROPE NEWS: The decision by Britain, America and certain other European countries to recognise Kosovo as an independent state is mind-blowingly stupid and suicidal and of a piece with their obvious determination to capitulate in the war for civilisation. It is a rotten decision for the following reasons:

1. It endorses a breach of a country's right to maintain its own integrity. Serbia is a properly constituted democratic country. To recognise the validity of such a secession is to undermine the principle of a country's right to determine its own composition. It puts up two fingers to international law, which explicitly recognises Serbian authority over Kosovo and upholds a state’s right to its own sovereignty. It opens the way for any other breakaway movement to do the same, both in the Balkans and around the world. So Tamils can now claim a precedent for seceding from Sri Lanka, Corsicans from France, Basques from Spain. And after Kosovo, can Scotland be far behind? Is this crazy, or is this crazy? >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Kosovo Emerging as Bastion of Radical Islam


Mark Alexander