Ben-Meir: Kosovo to beware of Erdogan's Islamic agenda

American professor, simultaneously Western Balkan Affairs expert Alon Ben-May in an interview for Radio Free Europe says Kosovo institutions should be careful at the initiative of Turkey's president, Recep Tayip Erdogan, who day before said that along with US President Joe Biden, would commit to ensuring new recognition of Kosovo.

Ben-Meir, who is a professor at the Centre for Global Affairs at New York University, says it is okay for Kosovo to have good reports with Turkey, but according to him the Government of Kosovo should not submit to the agenda of this state as well as to Erdogan's Islamic agenda.

“Anyone who supports or campaigns to push other states to recognise Kosovo is welcome. But, whatever the case, I have serious doubts about the intentions of (Recep Tayip) Erdogan and Turkey.

President Erdogan is a narcissist, egocentric, Islamist nationalist and perhaps what he wants to do is promote his agenda and all I can say to the people of Kosovo is that it is very right to have good reports with Turkey, but the Kosovo government should not submit to Erdogan's agenda as well as his Islamic agenda. That would be a mistake.

This is what Turkey is doing today, trying to show that it supports Kosovo, but at the same time Erdogan wants to take something from Kosovo. Here it cautions people to be careful how much Erdogan can be trusted”.

Professor Ben-Meir in this interview also speaks of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, which the process is not very optimistic that it can soon end with a final agreement.

According to him, if Recep Tayip Erdogan wanted more states to recognise Kosovo, he would have to use his indirect reports and talk to Russia because Russia opposes Serbia's recognition of Kosovo.

So he could use this side of it, as a friend of Russia's President Vladimir Putin, to ask Serbia to recognise Kosovo. It would have to be his commitment before trying to persuade some states to recognise Kosovo. Here essential is UN recognition and recognition from Serbia, and this should be the focus.

Any help that comes from anyone is welcome, even though I have doubts and I am suspicious about Erdogan's personal intentions and what he really wants to promote”.

He has also talked about the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue and final agreement.

“I can't say it's going to happen too soon, for one, two or three years it probably won't happen. But it is more important to push this process forward to become a sort of pressure on Serbia.

For example, the international community could work harder with Kosovo, more than they are working now, to help Kosovo clean up its home, help economic development, institutional development and development of democracy. This would have to be done in order to offer more with European culture and values, so that it is ready for integration at a certain point”.

This EU approach with Kosovo could place indirect pressure on Serbia, and Serbia would see that Kosovo is being offered every day more and more to the EU. The EU should also never stop by addressing a point: each issue is important in the negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, and any normalisation is welcome, but cannot be in the hands of Kosovo independence”.

Ben Meir has also talked about US involvement in the talks, whether about naming an emissary for dialogue.

I think as long as the U.S. is an important power and partner in the Western Hemisphere, the US, especially now represented by the president, Joe Biden who compared to the former president, Donald Trump, what can I say? President Biden is a noble man who can and will do many good things. So having his representative in this dialogue is always a help. It's good to have such a representative, and as far as I've got information, one will be named”.