by Nikolle Loka

Image from Kosova Sot

Literature: Sylvie Gangloff, Turkish policy towards the conflict in Kosovo: the preeminence of national political interests, Balkanologie, Vol. VIII, n° 1 | June 2004, Kosovo et diplomatie internationale

Where in today’s world has it been seen or heard that minorities are created for 20,000 inhabitants? Twenty thousand Turks can be found anywhere in the world today, but they can never become a minority. Only Yugoslavia created one, in order to weaken the Albanian factor (!).

The benefit was mutual: for the Turks, it allowed them — through this “minority” — to begin the process of Turkification; and in the interest of the Serbs, who secured the weakening of the Albanians. In alliance with the Turks, they would divide the citizens of Kosovo into “bad Albanians” who seek separation from Serbo-Slavia and “good Turks” who find themselves at home in Tito’s “democracy” and later Milošević’s.

One of the constant lines of Turkish policy toward Kosovo has been the insistence that the Turkish “minority” participate in the peace talks. The Serbs fully supported this demand because it allowed them to break Albanian unity in Kosovo. For the same reasons, Belgrade had granted cultural rights to the Turks already in the 1960s and 1970s. After the 1968 revolts in the province, Belgrade supported the publication of several newspapers in Turkish.

The Turkish language was added to the list of official languages in the 1974 Constitution. One year later, the Department of Turkish Language was opened at the University of Pristina. In Turkish studies, up to 50 students per year were registered.

This policy continued even after the revocation of Kosovo’s autonomy in 1989: the Albanian language — but not Turkish — was removed from official Radio-Television broadcasts. Albanians lost their jobs, while the Turks did not.