Free Republic

Turkey on Sunday voiced disappointment over majority-Muslim Kosovo's decision to recognize Israel and set up its mission in Jerusalem. A vocal advocate of the Palestinian cause, Turkey became one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. "Even the thought by Kosovo officials of taking such a step - which is a clear violation of international law - is disappointing," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement. The ministry called on the Kosovo leadership to avoid such steps that would harm the legal status of Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday...

Grenell berated reporters for ignoring the significance of the deal with Kosovo and Serbia. “I don’t know if you can find it on a map, but this is atrocious, I have to tell you guys,” he said. “You might be too young to understand what this issue is about; maybe the older journalists should step up and say this is a big deal.”

President Trump on Friday oversaw an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo that normalizes economic relations between the two countries, and that also includes Kosovo recognizing Israel and Serbia moving its embassy to Jerusalem. The Belgrade-Pristina deal was then signed by their two leaders in front of Trump in the Oval Office. “Truly, it is historic,” Trump said. “I look forward to going to both countries in the not too distant future.”

Al-Qaida Plot Revealed in Sarajevo Sat Mar 23,10:48 AM ET By ALEXANDAR S. DRAGICEVIC, Associated Press Writer SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Al-Qaida terrorists planned a devastating attack on Americans in Sarajevo after meeting in Bulgaria to identify European targets, a high-ranking Bosnian official said Saturday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that intelligence reports on the meeting in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, prompted a special government session Thursday night to discuss threats against the U.S. Embassy and embassies of European countries. He did not name the countries. At the Sofia meeting, members of al-Qaida...

Kosovan President Hashim Thaci has been indicted for war crimes allegedly committed during the Kosovo conflict in the late 1990s, leading him to cancel a planned trip to the White House this weekend for talks with Serbian leaders. The charges against Thaci were announced Wednesday by a special court at The Hague, in the Netherlands. According to a press statement, the Specialist Prosecutor's Office filed a 10-count indictment on April 24 that accuses Thaci, Kadri Veseli, the former Chairman of the Assembly of Kosovo, and others of "a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, enforced disappearance...

On this date (by the Julian calendar then in use) in 1389, Stefan Lazar Hrebeljanovic — that’s Tsar Lazar to you — led the armies of Moravian Serbia against the expanding Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Kosovo. The Serbs were defeated — thereby plunging, in the national mythology, into a half-millennium of Turkish domination. Lazar was supposedly* captured and beheaded. For a generation, Lazar had firmed up his authority as the most significant Serbian autocrat outside the Ottoman orbit. The gravity of that orbit, however, grew more powerful with each passing year; soon, it would devour Byzantium

(AP) -- Federal prosecutors have asked that an anonymous jury be impaneled for the trial of six men accused of plotting to attack soldiers on Fort Dix. In a motion filed Monday, the U.S. attorney's office said potential jurors might fear for their safety because of the nature of the charges and the international publicity around the case. The request could be discussed at a meeting Friday before U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler. Attorney Rocco Cipparone, who represents Mohamad Shnewer, told the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill for Tuesday's editions that he opposes an anonymous jury, fearing it would only fuel...

What happens to countries with no borders? Consider Kosovo. As we continue to watch the unbelievable bizarre, immature, and wholly irrational saga over whether or not we (the US) will be fortifying our borders with Mexico and constructing a more continuous and less permeable wall there, we might want to consider the disastrous consequences of open borders as they essentially existed between Yugoslavia and Albania when Josip Broz Tito ruled Yugoslavia from 1945-1981. For months, I have waited some discussion in the West relating NATO's theft of Kosovo from Serbia in 2008 with and the recent US border destabilization/problems to...

Iranian media report that a British flagged oil tanker has been seized by Iranian forces. Iran claiming that the tanker was seized for violating maritime regulations.... Iran stated its intention in recent days to respond to the seizure of one of its tankers by the UK. Earlier Friday the Supreme Court in Gibraltar granted a 30-day extension for detention of the Iranian oil tanker.... The Pentagon making it official Friday that US forces are going to Saudi Arabia.... Amidst all the controversy surrounding them, its been almost forgotten that Congresswoman Ihan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are...

Why Eastern Europeans are much more reluctant to accept Muslim migrants than their Western counterparts can be traced back to circumstances surrounding a pivotal battle, that of Kosovo, which took place on June 15, 1389, exactly 630 years ago today. It pitted Muslim invaders against Eastern European defenders—the ancestors of those many Eastern Europeans today who are resistant to Islam. Because the jihad is as old as Islam, it has been championed by diverse peoples throughout the centuries (Arabs in the Middle East, Moors (Berbers and Africans) in Spain and Western Europe, etc.). Islam’s successful entry into Eastern Europe was...

The bombing campaign against Yugoslavia that began on March 24 1999 was the first time NATO went to war. The 78-day campaign, known as Operation Allied Force, was officially conducted to protect civilians. They had been caught in the middle of the conflict between the secessionist insurgents of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and Yugoslavian security forces. The conflict had dramatically escalated in 1998, when the KLA began an armed campaign to end the Yugoslavian (or, more specifically, Serbian) rule over Kosovo. Even now, 20 years after the intervention, and despite the military, diplomatic and financial investments of Western powers...

The US State Department stepping up criticism of Syria's government and its military offensive the northwest against Al-Qaeda jihadists and other elements.... Next to Syria in Iraq, Turkey says its forces killed six more members of the Kurdish PKK..... Next to Iraq is Iran. US National Security Adviser John Bolton points the finger of blame for damage to oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Iran with his latest comments...... The political fight in Israel underway ahead of Wednesday night's deadline to form a new government..... Kosovo, a majority Muslim nation whose independence is recognized by half the world's'...

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A high-ranking U.S. envoy has urged Serbia and Kosovo to stop provoking each other and to resume their discussions over how to normalize relations between the two former wartime foes. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale, who met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, also called Friday on Kosovo to lift a 100 percent tariff on Serbian goods so that European Union-mediated talks can resume.

- The Yugoslav Wars started in 1991, but never really ended. - Kosovo and Serbia are still enemies, and they're getting worse. - A proposed land swap could create peace – or reignite the conflict. The government of Serbia has made its peace and established diplomatic relations with all other former Yugoslav countries, but not with Kosovo. In Serbian eyes, Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008 was a unilateral and therefore legally invalid change of state borders. Despite their current conflict, Kosovo and Serbia have the same long-term objective: Membership of the European Union. Ironically, that wish could lead to...

The Trump administration is working to score what it hopes to be another foreign policy win, this time by encouraging leaders from Serbia and Kosovo to sign a peace agreement in a ceremony that could take place at the White House. Trump recently sent letters to both Thaci and Serb President Aleksandar Vucic, asking they accelerate negotiations in an effort to resolve their impasse. As first reported in the Washington Post, Thaci and Vucic published their versions of the Trump letter online. “Failure to capi­tal­ize on this unique opportunity would be a tragic setback, as another chance for a comprehensive...

By April 1992, with its Soviet ally freshly dissolved, Yugoslavia as the world had known it was gone in a bloody and violent breakup, leaving some 100,000 dead, 2.4 million refugees, 2 million internally displaced, and seven independent nations in its place. While those ethnic tensions still simmer in much of the former Yugoslavia, so too is a growing sentimental recollection of life in a country much of the younger generations can only learn about in history books and museums like Milakovic’s Yugodom. A Gallup poll from last year showed that many people in the former Yugoslavia look back fondly...

If you googled “Invasion of South Ossetia” on Monday of this week one of the sites near the top of the list was the vitriolic anti Georgian propaganda web site “war.georgia.su” which detailed Georgian atrocities and planned atrocities against the peace loving people of South Ossetia. When I first saw it, the first thing that caught my eye (other than the over the top blood dripping pro anti Georian propaganda) was that the domain name itself. It did not end in “ge” as in Georgia but “su”, the domain name of sites in the former Soviet Union. This made me...

Federal authorities on Wednesday began legal proceedings to strip U.S. citizenship from two Bosnians, including one living in Oregon, for war crimes including executing civilians during that country’s civil war in the 1990s. The move by the U.S. Justice Department comes years after Rasema Handanovic and Edin Dzeko were extradited and later convicted by courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2011. After serving her sentence, Handanovic returned to Beaverton, Oregon, according to a statement from the Justice department, while Dzeko has not yet been released by Bosnian authorities. The department filed denaturalization lawsuits against the pair in federal courts in...

Russia's envoy to the U.N. on Friday warned long-term ally President Bashar al-Assad over his vow to retake all of Syria, saying he faced dire consequences if he did not comply with Moscow over the peace process. 'Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically and now also militarily,' Vitaly Churkin told Kommersant newspaper, referring to an international agreement to cease hostilities sealed in Munich last week. 'Therefore we would like Assad also to respond to this,' he said, adding that the Syrian leader's stance 'is not in accord with the diplomatic efforts that Russia is making.'

A former president of Serbia predicted Friday that a municipal election in Belgrade this weekend won't be conducted fairly and he criticized the European Union for tolerating what he called the undemocratic policies of the Balkan state's current leader. Boris Tadic alleged in an interview with The Associated Press that the EU has been unwilling to confront President Aleksander Vucic because he promised to resolve the status of Kosovo, the former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008.