Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency conference report, dated October 1995, contains the proceedings of a conference on ethnic conflict held 30 September to 1 October 1993. The CIA's Geographic Resources Division sponsored it. Academic geographers, anthropologists and US Government officials presented papers on ethnic and territorial conflict in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and South Asia. They also discussed what these conflicts mean for US policy. The document contains no UFO material.
“Terry”12 pages
C00123268 expects and that the well-being of these states, diplo- Throughout the Middle East anti-Westernism and anti- matic recognition, and financial aid are contingent on Americanism are rising as the Western democracies fair treatment of their ethnic. minorities. That the West that bomb Iraq, support Israel, and intervene in Mid- bowed to the wishes of Greece and did not recognize die Eastern affairs at will do nothing to stop a Chris- Macedonia's right to independence based on its con- tian country from annihilating a Muslim people. 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 A Worst Case Scenario principle of self-determination is not a part of current Western thinking. The messages from this are all Given the above considerations, there is a possibility too clear to the Bulgarians, Macedonians, Turks, and of a major war breaking out in the Balkans. Serbs are others. determined not to allow the formation of an Albanian ethnic entity in Kosovo, as they see it as their original In addition, the example set by inaction in Bosnia homeland. Having ethnically cleansed much of Bosnia made it painfully clear to the Muslims in the Middle of Muslims and Croats, they have become greatly East, including our important ally Turkey, that the (continued)emboldened with their success. This has West does not stand up for the rights of Muslims as a been exacerbated by the lack of any real deterrents by people. This perception has been reinforced by the the Western powers. A Serb attempt to ethnically ultraright's win in Parisian elections (in which it took cleanse Kosovo may trigger a series of events that will 80 percent of the vote) with the slogan, "Charles le draw other peoples and powers into the dispute. It is Magne stopped the Moors at the Pyrenees and Mitter- doubtful that Albania will be able to remain neutral rand gave them Paris and Marseilles, " and the anti- under those circumstances, and it is most likely that Turkish acts of violence in Germany. By not acting to Kosovar Albanians would be forced to flee into Mac- defend the Bosnian Muslims and by tolerating the acts donia and/or Albania itself. of rape, murder, and terror against them by the Serbs, the message was given that the West is no friend of A regional war might break out that would create either Muslims or of the Middle East. great instability. The existence of Macedonia as a state would again come into question. One possibility is We should add to this the lack of Western resolve to that Macedonia would seek reentry into a Yugoslav stop the Greeks when they infiltrated Cyprus and pre- entity. However, the large Albanian population would cipitated the invasion by the Turks. Although Western- oppose that, and war would be imminent between eth- ers did not condemn Greek acts of violence against the nic Macedonians and Albanians in such a case. Mace- Turks, they did condemn the Turks for invading the donia lies among hostile Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and island-and partitioning it. The Turks ask themselves, Albania, all of whom lay claim to its land. "Why are we condemned for saving the lives of our people in Cyprus while the Serbs are permitted, in the In a war in the Balkans, it is highly possible that Tur- guise of defending their people, to murder innocent key might get involved, especially if requested to by Muslims?" During the summer of 1993 throughout Albania. We need also consider that hundreds of thou- Turkey pictures were hanging on billboards of a Bos- sands of Turks in Turkey today are of Albanian-, Bos- nian child with one leg cut off by Serbs with the cap- nian-, Serbian-, Macedonian-, Greek- or Bulgarian- tion Bosnanin En Kucuk Gazisi (Bosnia's Youngest Muslim extraction. Indeed, Kemal Ataturk, the Warrior of the Faith). This was a tongue in cheek swat founder of the modern Turkish republic, was of Alba- at the Serbs who.call the Bosnian Muslims Islamic nian ancestry from Thesalonika (Greece). Just as eth- fundamentalists and claim that they (the Serbs) are nic Americans lobby our goverment regarding issues defending Europe against the Muslim menace. in their ancestral homelands, so do Turks of Balkan descent. 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. 34
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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.