"Greater Albania is key security risk"

Source: Vecernje novosti, Tanjug

BELGRADE -- The chairman of the Committee on Security Services Control believes that the key security risk faced by Serbia is "realization of the Greater Albania project."

Momir Stojanovic (R) (Beta, file)

Speaking for the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti, Momir Stojanovic said that "a wave of terrorism" is not being ruled out, and that it would be "launched in Macedonia, spill over to our country - even though Serbia's institutions have operatively and intelligence-wise taken all preventive measures."
According to Stojanovic, the region around Presevo in southern Serbia is "potentially the biggest risk area," and described it as "an important strategic point."

"Through it passes the key road and rail communication, while the Turkish Stream pipeline is also planned. It is possible that those great powers who mind that project have struck at the weakest link - Macedonia. Serbia must be careful not to, while fighting for the north of Kosovo and Metohija, lose the south of the central Serbia," this MP from the ruling SNS party told the newspaper.

Asked "who really controls the terrorists," Stojanovic responded by saying it was "no secret that the United States, in terms of creating its Western Balkans policy, relies on the Albanian corps."

"America has no problem with realization of a Greater Albania because it is not a threat to their security and their interests. On the other hand, the EU is afraid of it because the project is a source of instability in this part of the world," he said.

"Greater Albania" refers to an expansionist project that would extend the borders of Albania to include parts of Serbia, Greece, Macedonia, and Montenegro.

According to Stojadinovic, "all Albanian political leaders in the region are essentially 'one brain'."

"The division between them is such that one group sends conciliatory messages while the other sends radical and extreme ones. And at the push of a button they are ready to signal terrorists to take action when needed. And that - when they get the nod from the outside," Stojanovic, a former general, concluded.