Kosovo Declares Independence From Serbia

It is sadly a little more surprising with Muslims though, because of the general media portrayal of them.

xpost - yeah, she was a ridiculous flirt as well.

yes, this is all true. (including the bit about kosovo getting "more muslim" since 1999 -- mosque-building and whatnot.) i don't really know what you mean by "a muslim country" -- that covers everything from turkey to afghanistan.

all this is sort of moot from the serbian perspective because their beef isn't a western-style multicultural "issue" thing to do with dietary habits, mores, etc. those change rapidly anyway, as they have in the UK quite a bit since the '70s. at the same time it's not quite accurate to say it has nothing to do with "religion" and is an "ethnic" issue -- not sure what that even means tbh.

1389?

When it kicked off in the Balkans in the early nineties, I remember people in the eastern parts of the (then not quite) former Yougoslavia being described as "beer drinking Muslims".

there are mysterious very religious Sufi Muslims in the former Yugoslavia (possibly including in particular Serbia) where they see the bouze as in no way being in conflict with their religion. A friend who did certain political work in that part of the world mentioned how this Muslim cleric guy he knew would always make a point of cracking open the wine at every available opportunity.

Imagine how fond of Kosova the Serbs would be if they had actually won that stupid battle.

kosovo getting "more muslim" since 1999 -- mosque-building and whatnot

The money you pay for oil, this is where it ends up. This and high-class call girls.

and indoor ski-slopes.

not those really prickly ones either, with actual "snow".

But guys free beer! Best secession ever.

this is only peripherally related, but when I saw the story just now about a B-2 Stealth Bomber crashing in Guam, I was reminded of when the Serbs shot one down and there was a news photo of a Serb with a sign that said "Sorry, we didn't see it!"

Narrow escape for the people of Serbia, who have surely suffered enough

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7285322.stm

Serbia's PM Kostunica stands down

Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has announced his resignation and called for new elections.

The decision follows his failure to get his cabinet to reject closer ties with the European Union in the wake of Kosovo's declaration of independence.

arf at bjork zing

Not good:

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-42701712?__twitter_impression=true

I'm sure Tony B will be along to poor oil on the troubled waters soon enough

Not good at all. Though the revive would've been about Russia apparently training mercenaries backing Serbian separatists. Which, if true, also is not good.

*thought

#Serbia government statement in 2017 on slain politician Oliver Ivanovic: "if you vote Oliver Ivanovic, you vote for destruction of Serbian unity in Kosovo, and clearly, you vote against keeping the organic connection between state of Serbia with Serbian people in province"

— Petrit Selimi (@Petrit) January 16, 2018

Ex-FM of Kosovo reminding everyone of what the Serbian government was saying about Ivanovic when he was alive. Lots of apecu

... speculation that the Serbian government could have been involved but nobody knows anything yet.

Dozens of guys, and I mean dozens, in cars racing about waving Albanian flags in my neighbourhood - it's like a convoy. Apparently it was Albania's national day... yesterday.

it feels so weird to me that i started this thread - very much not in character for the kind of ILXing i would go on to do in later years

Did you hear the one about....

🇽🇰 A Serb and an Albanian were arrested today in Kosovo on suspicion of marijuana possession after an amount of the drug was found in the vehicle they were traveling in.

— kos_data (@kos_data) October 14, 2023