A comparative analysis of the policies of Turkey, the Russian Federation, and Greece towards the Kosovo issue (1999–2008)

The developments in Kosovo that occurred after the death of Josip Broz Tito were one of the key factors in the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Albanians in Kosovo, after the change of its status, started a peaceful resistance under the leadership of Ibrahim Rugova. However, the focus of the international community on the Bosnian War in the first half of the 1990s caused the Kosovo issue to decline in importance. As a result, Kosovo was not mentioned in the Dayton Accords, which caused Albanians to change their methods, and they subsequently militarized under the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA/UÇK). Clashes between the Yugoslavian Army, Serbian soldiers, and KLA in 1998 and 1999 concluded with NATO’s intervention on March 24, 1999. While the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) took the lead in the region, Albanians in Kosovo started to establish their own institutions after 1999. The failure of international negotiations over Kosovo’s status led Kosovo to declare her independence unilaterally with the support of the United States on 17th February, 2008. Turkey, as a member of NATO, joined the intervention in 1999 and supported the Kosovan independence process in the 2000s, while the Russian Federation (RF) opposed the unilateral independence declaration because the negotiations on Kosovo’s status did not conclude with a deal between both sides. In spite of Greece’s being a member of NATO, Athens only reluctantly supported the intervention in 1999 and Greek public opinion was firmly against that decision. Greece has been a traditional ally of Serbia in the Balkans, leading to a difficult situation for Greece. The result of this can be seen in the decision of Greece to not recognise Kosovo. This work compares the policies of Turkey, RF, and Greece on the Kosovo issue between the years of 1999 and 2008 and attempts to explore the primary motivations of these actors’ policies regarding Kosovo’s independence.