Milivojevic: It is in the interest of the US that Turkey plays a more significant role in Kosovo

Turkey is definitely assuming a significant, if not a dominant, role in Kosovo, and numerous facts point to this tendency, Blic reports.

Pristina has acquired "Bayraktar" drones from Turkey, so the Kosovo Security Forces (KSF) will have drones for the first time. Turkish instructors are training members of the KSF to operate "Bayraktars", while Turkey has more members in KFOR than the USA.

On top of everything, in the fall, Turkey will command the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo for the first time, and this country also manages Bondsteel.

Zoran Milivojevic, a career diplomat, sees "at least three strategic lines" in strengthening Turkey's role in Kosovo.

"Kosovo is of special strategic interest to Turkey. Former Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu defined the strategic interests in Kosovo and in the Western Balkans in general, and he cited Albanian and Islamic as key factors. It is no coincidence that Turkey was the second country to recognize Kosovo's independence," Milivojevic emphasizes.

As he says, we should not ignore the geopolitical consequences of the war in Ukraine.

"After the war, but already now, a large distribution of geostrategic influences in Europe and the world is being prepared. Turkey is currently promoting its interests in Kosovo and for that it uses hard, military power. Let's not forget, Turkey is the second military power in NATO, and by strengthening the military component, he wants to protect his political power in Kosovo," Milivojevic explains.

He believes that the US also has an interest in Turkey getting a more significant role in Kosovo.

"In this way, Washington will bind Turkey more firmly to NATO, especially since Turkey's actions in Kosovo will not put into question the interests of the West, which advocates for an independent Kosovo. Also, the Islamic factor is very pronounced in Kosovo, since Muslims are the overwhelming majority of the population. Turkey has a role to play to overcome the eventual extreme Islamic factor with its influence," Milivojevic analyzes and says that he sees three roles for Turkey with a dominant influence in Kosovo.

"The first role is to indirectly strengthen Kosovo's statehood and contribute to its greater functionality. The second is to strengthen Kosovo's NATO tendency because one of Kosovo's priorities is to join NATO. And the third role is to close Russia's influence in the Balkans after the war in Ukraine in order to also close the issue of Kosovo," Milivojevic says.

That is why Milivojevic believes that Serbia should reconsider its relations with Turkey.

"That topic is now being opened. Until now, everything has been fine in our relations. I expect a greater degree of reservation from Serbia towards the influence of Turkey in these areas," the diplomat concludes.

On the other hand, Dusan Janjic, the president of the board of directors of the Forum for Ethnic Relations, thinks that Turkey's greater role in Kosovo is more a result of circumstances.

"The contingent of KFOR members rotates in a circle according to a pre-planned order, and the rule is whoever has the most soldiers is in command. The same will now be the case with Turkey. The same is true with Bondsteel, which is not exclusively a US base as many think. It is a NATO base. So there is nothing new there," Janjic assesses.

As he says, back in 2009, the Kosovo Security Corps was renamed the Kosovo Security Forces.

"Even then, it was known that it would be developed as a military formation to protect, as they said, the population from terrorism and armed conflicts from outside. Those Kosovo Security Forces now have 5,000 professional members and 1,000 reservists, which is not so small. But, I think we should not divert attention from the main topic, which is the issue of the security package. There is a strong tendency to push Serbia into war, and that is the least that Serbia needs," Janjic concludes.