Catalonia won't get help from Balkans

The EU has been placed in charge of its silence for violence in Catalonia. What is equally surprising, some may say, is the even deeper silence from Balkan countries.

After all, many of these countries have only recently appeared on the map of Europe, thanks to rebellion against the rule of larger entities using more or less the same language and arguments as the Catalans now.

But if the comparison between Catalonia today and Croatia, Montenegro and Kosovo in the 1990s and 2000 seems very clear to outsiders, it does not seem clear to any of these countries' governments.

One might think that Kosovo, in particular, would feel a soul of closeness for the Catalonia a [formerly] “print test” that supports another CHA but did not happen at all.

As reported in B INR this week, the only statement issued by a senior government official was that Kosovo's practice is not “comment on the domestic affairs of other countries”.

That doesn't exactly sound like support for Catalonia's self - determination.

But perhaps we should not be so surprised. A significant feature of modern independence movements is how uninterested they are for each other's causes.

That was the case in late the 19th century in Britain, when pioneers of Scottish nationalism and Wales rushed to Ireland only to be bitterly disappointed in their hope that Irish nationalists would take an interest in their cause and form a common front.

But the Irish proved interested in their independence from Britain, not Scotland or Wales. Once they took their country in 1920, they made no effort to act as champions of other moves for independence, neither in Europe nor anywhere.

Finally, Scottish nationalists showed that they could be just as selfish. In 1999, in the conflict within and for Kosovo, one could assume that the main union parties in the United Kingdom would support Serbia against the rebel province, while Scottish nationalists would side with Kosovars seeking independence.

In reality, it was the opposite. The main British parties, Labusists and Conservators, supported Kosovars, while Scottish nationalists, under Alex Salmond obsessed with their dispute with London, went against intervention, charging NATO and Britain for lawlessness.

Within the former Yugoslavia itself, different independence movements did not seem to have ever taken an interest in each other.

Slovenia and Croatia declared independence together. But the moment the Yugoslav Army agreed to withdraw from Slovenia, Slovenians became virtually indifferent to the fate of Croats.

Croatians, in turn, viewed independence mainly in neighbouring Bosnia as a chance to take some of its territory and form a new mini-state that could join them eventually.

Croatians were interested in other independence movements in the region, but only from their own goals. At one point, when the war within Croatia was going particularly wrong, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman offered to arm and train Kosovars if they would start a southern front and remove Serbs from his country.

I remember the suggestion to Kosovo leader Ibrahim Rugova in an interview and his eyes were ripped apart. I don't remember the exact words, but I remember the essence that Kosovars were not crazy enough to sacrifice themselves to save Croatia.

In reality, achieving independence is like a race. He runs alone and crosses the finish line alone, not as part of a team effort. And once he's crossed the line, he can't see who hasn't made it. Therefore, the Irish never took an interest in Scottish, Slovenians, and so forth.

Kosovo's current leaders, Hashim Thaci and Ramush Haradinaj, likely feel a sense of sympathy for the Catalan war. But their main interest now lies in advancing Kosovo's claim to be treated as an adult member state in the club of international countries. In official suits now they are trying to leave behind days of green military shirts.

As the silence of the EU shows, the Balkans are alone.

 

Marcus Tanner is editor for the Balkan Investigative Journal Network, B IRN, and foreign journalist for the British newspaper, Indian. Before joining B INR in 2006, he worked as a correspondent for the Balkans for Independent from 1989 to 1994, and the world site editor until 2001. Tanner is the author of several books like, "Croatia, A Nation Formed in War, ] Ireland's Holy Wars, ] Left of the Celts, "The Raven King: Methias Corvinus and the Fate of His Lost Library, as well as Albayas Mountain Queen: Edith Durham and the Balkans. )