Anmerkungen zum Kosovo, Karl Marx und der Logik des Jochtauschs
Notes on Kosovo, Karl Marx and the Logic of Changing the Yoke

Summary/Abstract: The speech delivered at the opening of an academic conference dedicated to the influence of the European Union and its accession policy argues that there are no feasible alternatives to an independent state of Kosovo. The author tries to make his point by refuting the most popular arguments that are usually brought forward against independence, reasoning that neither the so called “domino-effect” nor legal aspects (integrity of state-borders vs. right to self-determination, Badinter-Commission, Yugoslav constitution of 1974) are convincing reasons against the independence of Kosovo. An independent Kosovo endangers the stability of the region less than a Kosovo kept in its current unclear status. Some of the author’s main arguments are: The secessionist movements in other parts of the world will follow their agenda regardless of the status of Kosovo. Kosovo should have received the status of a seventh Yugoslav republic already back in 1974, when the new constitution of Yugoslavia was proclaimed. Comparisons to the Republika Srpska are idle, as a Serbian majority in this part of Bosnia did not exist prior to the war of the 1990s and was achieved only through expulsions and genocide of non-Serbs. Kosovo’s independence is only the culmination of a development that started with the incorporation of Kosovo into the Serbian state after the Balkan wars. Serbia is politically not willing and economically not able to retain its sovereignty over Kosovo.

• Details
• Contents