Balkanalysis.com

05/27/2007: Turkey Takes Over NATO Leadership in Kosovo, Blocks Greek Cypriot Participation

05/27/2007: Turkey Takes Over NATO Leadership in Kosovo, Blocks Greek Cypriot Participation

(Balkanalysis.com Security and Intelligence Brief 22) On May 29, Turkey will take over the command of NATO’s Kosovo force. In denying EU-member Cyprus a place in the force, the Turkish government has announced that “Greek Cypriot participation in a multinational force in Kosovo is not included in [EU-NATO] cooperation,� reports the Financial Times. Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Levent Bilman, speaking at a press conference yesterday, used the argument that the Greek-populated Republic of Cyprus “does not represent the whole island,� and thus could not be included.

The island remains divided because Turkish troops have illegally occupied the northern third of Cyprus since 1974. The so-called “Turkish Republic of North Cyprus� is not recognized by any country in the world.

A plan to reunify the island politically on the eve of the Greek Republic of Cyprus, drafted by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, was supported by Turks but turned down by Greek Cypriots, who correctly noted that the plan did not offer them any incentives to share power with Turks. The plan would not have forced the Turkish military to leave the island and property restitution issues for Greek Cypriot refugees from the north would not be immediately resolved either.

However, the current politicking over the Kosovo Force’s makeup is much more than a reflection of traditional hostilities. Far from being another example of spiteful one-upsmanship, the Turkish rejection of a Cypriot role in Kosovo is part of a wider showdown, involving Greece as well, over Cypriot plans to begin oil exploration in the waters off of its coast. By bringing in foreign oil conglomerates, the Cypriot government believes it can win added protection against any potential military attacks from Turkey. Greece itself is using the same tactics against Turkey, in its Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline project with Bulgarian and Russian participation. The pipeline will hug the Greek-Turkish border in Evros. Balkanalysis.com has reported extensively on both developments and the potential for military confrontation this summer that the Cypriot oil plan has exacerbated.

One upshot of the Turkish rejection of Cypriots in Kosovo is that it will also prove to be a setback for Greek intelligence efforts in the disputed province. There is little love between Turks and Albanians (Turkish residents of Kosovo, like the Serbs and Roma, have been ostracized or expelled from the province too by Albanian nationalists), and the Arab efforts to impose Wahhabi Islam at the expense of the traditional Ottoman Turkish Muslim faith have also concerned the Turkish government, which is renovating mosques and highlighting its culture widely through the Balkans as a means of cementing its place in the region.

Nevertheless, the Turkish ‘deep state,’ consisting of the military and intelligence structures, have been widely accused over the years of participating in organized drug smuggling- using embassies in Europe and NATO as cover. Kosovo is the leading transit route for Afghan heroin in the Balkans. Turkey’s command of the military force in Kosovo could prove a windfall for corrupt officials- or, if not done properly, bring them into conflict with the Albanian mafia lords who control the province.