Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency conference report, numbered RTT 95-10039 and dated October 1995, presents the proceedings of a conference held 30 September to 1 October 1993. The CIA's Geographic Resources Division sponsored the conference. In it, academic geographers, anthropologists and US Government officials examined ethnic conflict by region, covering Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and South Asia. The report also discusses what these conflicts mean for US policy. It does not deal with UFOs or unidentified aerial phenomena.
“Terry”13 pages
Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268 expects and that the well-being of these states, diplo- matic recognition, and financial aid are contingent on fair treatment of their ethnic. minorities. That the West bowed to the wishes of Greece and did not recognize Macedonia’s right to independence based on its con- cern over a name showed a lack of resolve on the part of the West and made it clear to all in Eastern Europe that consistency, democracy, and recognition of the principle of self-determination is not a part of current Western thinking. The messages from this are all too clear to the Bulgarians, Macedonians, Turks, and others. In addition, the example set by inaction in Bosnia made it painfully clear to the Muslims in the Middle East, including our important ally Turkey, that the West does not stand up for the rights of Muslims as a people. This perception has been reinforced by the ultraright’s win in Parisian elections (in which it took 80 percent of the vote) with the slogan, “Charles le Magne stopped the Moors at the Pyrenees and Mitter- rand gave them Paris and Marseilles, " and the anti- Turkish acts of violence in Germany. By not acting to defend the Bosnian Muslims and by tolerating the acts of rape, murder, and terror against them by the Serbs, the message was given that the West is no friend of either Muslims or of the Middle East. We should add to this the lack of Westem resolve to stop the Greeks when they infiltrated Cyprus and pre- cipitated the invasion by the Turks. Although Westem- ers did not condemn Greek acts of violence against the Turks, they did condemn the Turks for invading the island and partitioning it. The Turks ask themselves, “Why are we condemned for saving the lives of our people in Cyprus while the Serbs are permitted, in the guise of defending their people, to murder innocent Muslims?” During the summer of 1993 throughout Turkey pictures were hanging on billboards of a Bos- nian child with one leg cutoff by Serbs with the cap- tion Bosnanin En Kucuk Gazisi (Bosnia’s Youngest Warrior of the Faith). This was a tongue in cheek swat at the Serbs who call the Bosnian Muslims Islamic fundamentalists and claim that they (the Serbs) are defending Europe against the Muslim menace. If the West is truly concerned about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, then it should reevaluate its position regarding the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Throughout the Middle East anti-Westemism and anti- Americanism are rising as the Western democracies that bomb Iraq, support Israel, and intervene in Mid- dle Eastern affairs at will do nothing to stop a Chris- tian country from annihilating a Muslim people. A Worst Case Scenario Given the above considerations, there is a possibility of a major war breaking out in the Balkans. Serbs are determined not to allow the formation of an Albanian ethnic entity in Kosovo, as they see it as their original homeland. Having ethnically cleansed much of Bosnia of Muslims and Croats, they have become greatly (continued)emboldened with their success. This has been exacerbated by the lack of any real deterrents by the Western powers. A Serb attempt to ethnically cleanse Kosovo may trigger a series of events that will draw other peoples and powers into the dispute. It is doubtful that Albania will be able to remain neutral under those circumstances, and it is most likely that Kosovar Albanians would be forced to flee into Mace- donia andlor Albania itself. A regional war might break out that would create great instability. The existence of Macedonia as a state would again come into question. One possibility is that Macedonia would seek reentry into a Yugoslav entity. However, the large Albanian population would oppose that, and war would be imminent between eth- nic Macedonians and Albanians in such a case. Mace- donia lies among hostile Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Albania, all of whom lay claim to its land. In a war in the Balkans, it is highly possible that Tur- key might get involved, especially if requested to by Albania. We need also consider that hundreds of thou- sands of Turks in Turkey today are of Albanian-, Bos- nian-, Serbian-, Macedonian-, Greek- or Bulgarian- Muslim extraction. Indeed, Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, was of Alba- nian ancestry from Thesalonika (Greece). Just as eth- nic Americans lobby our government regarding issues in their ancestral homelands, so do Turks of Balkan descent. 34 Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 205 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.