Reaction in Greece to the Yugoslav Wars

The Greek reaction to the Yugoslav Wars refers to the geopolitical relations between Greece and the countries that emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia as a result of the Yugoslav Wars as well as the international stance of the former during the years of the conflict in terms of activities by state and non-state actors (enterprises, peace-keeping forces, non-governmental organizations, Church of Greece etc.)

The "Greece-Bosnia and Herzegovina Friendship Building" in Sarajevo

Events

In the first phase of the wars, Greek policy, in alignment with Western policy at the time, sought to prevent the breakup of the Yugoslav Federation.[1] Greek perceptions of the crisis were also affected by fears of expansionist attempts by Turkey to forge an Islamic branch in the Balkans. As such Greek political elites quickly adopted a defensive posture towards the new Balkan realities: they viewed the breakup of Yugoslavia as a threat to stability and consequently initially aligned with Serbia. However, Greece never opposed the developments of Western diplomacy in response to the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, but public opinion in Greece remained strongly opposed to any form of military intervention.[1]

During the 1990s, Greek public opinion expressed support for the actions of the Serbs, making Greece differ in its position from fellow EU states.[2] The Church of Greece expressed similar sentiments, when in 1993, Archbishop Serafim said that "the Orthodox Church is on the side of the Orthodox Serb people".[2] There was a lack of criticism from Church of Greece officials toward war crimes committed by the Serbs.[2] Priests made regular visits to Serbia and to Bosnian areas under Serb control, and assisted the Serbs both materially and spiritually.[2] Some of them were decorated by Biljana Plavšić, then President of Republika Srpska.[3] At the time of the Bosnian War, the Church of Greece declared Radovan Karadžić, then leader of the Bosnian Serbs, a Christian hero and awarded him with honours in 1993 at a large gathering in Piraeus Stadium.[2][4][5]

The Church of Greece supported materially and morally the Bosnian Serb leadership in the Bosnian War.[6][7] Its approach was linked to Greek foreign policy of the early 1990s that aspired to the creation of an "Orthodox arc" between Orthodox states in the Balkans, although the policy changed after 1995.[6] Christodoulos of Athens after his election as Archbishop of Greece in 1998 used sermons to criticise NATO and western actions during the Kosovo War.[7] The Church leadership along with elements of Greek society espousing traditional and anti-European Union views had attempted to leverage their influence to steer Greek state policy toward a pro-Serbian/Yugoslav direction.[7] On March 1995, a unit of 100 Greek volunteers (including members of Golden Dawn) that came to be known as the Greek Volunteer Guard was formed in support of the Army of the Republika Srpska at the request of Ratko Mladić.[8][9] Golden Dawn members also joined Serbian paramilitary groups and were participants of the Srebrenica massacre.[10] The Greek Volunteer Guard found a positive response in public reaction in Greece.[10]

Journalist Takis Michas considers the politicisation of the Church of Greece in the period of the Yugoslav Wars one of the most important political developments in Greece in the 1990s.[11]

Kosovo War

As a result of the Kosovo War and NATO bombing of Yugoslavia a number of concerns were raised in the Greek media such as the use of depleted uranium in NATO’s weaponry in Greece's proximity.[12] Additionally the Kosovo war was seen in Greece as an American attempt to undermine the role of the European Union and to distract public attention in the United States from the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. Fears that the Kosovo war might create a Greater Albania also emerged in the Greek press. Additionally, but less frequently, concerns were raised about a possible settlement of Kosovar refugees in Southern Albania/Northern Epirus, which would alter the demographic balance of the area in territories inhabited by the Greek minority.[12] During the war in Kosovo the Greek Left also favoured the Serbs and considered NATO's military intervention as a blatant exercise of neo-imperialist power.[13] More than 10,000 Greeks participated in the anti-war and anti-NATO protests.[14]

Greek humanitarian aid assisted both sides in the conflict. Thanks to Greece's general attitude towards the war, Yugoslav authorities treated Greek humanitarian agencies favourably and without any suspicion. This enable Greek NGO's to perform their duties unobstructed. As such a Greek medical group was the first foreign humanitarian aid NGO to operate in the affected region less than a month after NATO's military intervention begun. In general the amount of resources provided to the refugees of the war (primarily Albanians) represents the largest humanitarian campaign in modern Greek history.[15] The Greek Army established a refugee camp in Pogradec, southeast Albania. Moreover, humanitarian aid was also offered through less official channels from Greece, for example from the Church of Greece which was active in southern Albania.[16]

Sources
  1. Armakolas, Ioannis; Karabairis, Apostolis (2012). "International Conference to Launch Position Papers on Kosovo's Relation with EU and Regional Non-recognising Countries" (PDF). Kosovo Foundation for Open Society and British Council: 94–95. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  2. Roudometoff, Victor (2005). "Orthodoxy as public religion in post-1989 Greece". In Pankhurst, Jerry; Roudometof, Victor; Agadjanian, Alexander (eds.). Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age: Tradition Faces the 21st Century. AltaMira Press. p. 86. ISBN 9780759114777.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  3. Smith, Helena (2003). "Greece faces shame of role in Serb massacre". Spiritual succour was provided by the Greek Orthodox church which sent priests to the front line (several clerics received bravery medals from Plavsic).
  4. Mojzes, Paul (2015). "Religion and the Yugoslav Wars (1991-1999)". In Radeljić, Branislav; Topić, Martina (eds.). Religion in the Post-Yugoslav Context. Lexington Books. p. 7. ISBN 9781498522489.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  5. Michas 2002, p. 22.
  6. Benovska-Sabkova, Milena (2010). "The Russian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church: Relations and Influences in the Wake of Socialism". In Ruegg, François; Boscoboinik, Andrea (eds.). Palermo to Penang/De Palerme a Penang: A Journey into Political Anthropology/Un itineraire en anthropologie politique. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 154. ISBN 9783643800626.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  7. Kavakas, Dimitrios (2017). Greece and Spain in European Foreign Policy: The Influence of Southern Member States in Common Foreign and Security Policy. Routledge. pp. 172–173. ISBN 9781351808569.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  8. Baker, Catherine (2015). The Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 73. ISBN 113739899X. These included the so-called Greek Volunteer Guard (member of the far-right group Golden Dawn among them), which participated in the VRS attack on Srebrenica [..]
  9. Procknow, Greg (2014). Recruiting and Training Genocidal Soldiers: Human Resource Development Perspectives on Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Francis & Bernard Publishing. ISBN 0986837407. Retrieved 30 April 2020. A greatly perturbed Greek contingent of 100 soldiers was organized at the request of General Mladić in March 1995 to support Bosnian Serbs' quelling of the Muslim problem.
  10. Doxiadis, Eudoxios (2018). Living Under Austerity: Greek Society in Crisis. Berghahn Books. p. 75. ISBN 1785339346. As recent revelations have confirmed a number of Golden Dawn activists joined Serbian paramilitary groupings and participated in the Srebrenica massacre. The activities of the Greek Volunteer Guard were well received in Greece.
  11. Michas, Takis (2002). Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milošević's Serbia. Texas A&M University Press. pp. 109. ISBN 9781585441839.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  12. Armakolas, Ioannis; Karabairis, Apostolis (2012). "International Conference to Launch Position Papers on Kosovo's Relation with EU and Regional Non-recognising Countries" (PDF). Kosovo Foundation for Open Society and British Council: 96–97. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  13. Armakolas, Ioannis; Karabairis, Apostolis (2012). "International Conference to Launch Position Papers on Kosovo's Relation with EU and Regional Non-recognising Countries" (PDF). Kosovo Foundation for Open Society and British Council: 99. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  14. "World: Europe Greeks protest at Nato strikes". BBC. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  15. Armakolas, Ioannis; Karabairis, Apostolis (2012). "International Conference to Launch Position Papers on Kosovo's Relation with EU and Regional Non-recognising Countries" (PDF). Kosovo Foundation for Open Society and British Council: 100. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  16. Selm, Joanne van (2000). Kosovo's Refugees in the European Union. A&C Black. p. 218. ISBN 978-1-85567-641-1.
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