A double standard for Kosovo (Serbia - Albania)

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
March 17, 2009

It is a year since Kosovo, with NATO backing, made a unilateral declaration of independence, breaking away from Serbia. Fifty countries, most of which have little knowledge of the political intricacies of the Balkans and even less about the complicated historical interplay between the various ethnic and religious groups living in the area supported the move. As a state it is doubtful whether Kosovo can survive. ............

.........The main argument of NATO for Kosovo's independence was that it was inhabited by a majority of Muslim Albanians who were oppressed by the Christian Serbs. If we accept this argument for secession why don't we look a little further and cast our eye on Albania proper. If the NATO Kosovo argument is valid, then why has NATO not supported the secession of Northern Epirus, the southern Albanian province populated by a culturally, religious, and ethnically oppressed population who are Greeks?

Northern Epirus has a better argument for secession than Kosovo because it is an area that always had a predominantly Greek population, it was a part of Greece, and at one time in the early 20th century even had several North Epirus Greek members sitting in the Greek Parliament.

Further, the Albanians themselves agreed to the self determination of the Greeks in their southern Greek provinces by signing the international Treaty of Corfu. It was a foregone conclusion that Northern Epirus would devolve to become a part of Greek Epirus, a logical development since the area was nationally, culturally and religiously a seamless continuation of Greek Epirus............

more see: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/94838