The Performance Of History In The Kafkian-Grotesque Form – OpEd
The end of a generation’s tales about inviolable freedom
Earlier this week, my son asked me to read him a bedtime story from the children’s Bible. The fact that the adult world is currently being violently shaken has apparently not escaped the eye of my seven-year-old boy. I chose the story “David defeats Goliath”, in which a fearless boy uses pebble slingshots to kill his gigantic opponent. Brutal, but unfortunately more contemporary than the pedagogy with which I was allowed to grow up. Many of my generation’s compatriots have embraced the fact that violence does not solve problems. Unfortunately, this may not happen any further, at least not from February 24 of this year.
This is the story with which the German weekly “Der Spiegel” opens its article on its digital edition, dedicated to Ukraine’s “relentless” fighters. The cover story describes Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “Churchill wearing a woolen jacket.”
In this issue “Der Spiegel” brings the interview with John Spencer, an American expert on urban warfare, who talks about the scenario of “David’s Goliath Prayer” that is already happening in Ukraine. Meanwhile, NATO has stressed the unity of the alliance, while the Pope described the Russian occupation of Ukraine as a “perverse abuse of power”, which is exposing vulnerable people to “brutal violence”. German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock, meanwhile, described the Russian attack on Ukraine as a “geopolitical turning point”. “The Russian war in Ukraine is a ‘geopolitical turning point with far-reaching implications for European security,'” Baerbock said. Therefore, when developing a new national security strategy, Germany and Europe need to rethink their security policies [1], she points out. These minuscule tales of a generation come to an end.
If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it
On March 15th, 1939, German troops marched into Czechoslovakia and secured the control over Bohemia and established a protectorate over Slovakia.
On April 7th, 1939, Italy, led by Benito Mussolini, invaded Albania.
On September 1st, 1939, Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland.
World history takes it as the start date of WWII, not April 7, but September 1st, 1939! Crimea was invaded by Putin’s Russian Federation in March 2014.
Putin’s fascist Russia resumed full occupation of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022.
The war for Ukraine started in March 2014 or in February 2022? A good part of the West considers February 24th, 2022, as the beginning of the war!
The Ministry of Defense announced on March 19th that the Russian Air Force has used a new hypersonic missile for the first time in Ukraine. Kinzhal rockets fired from the Crimean Peninsula have destroyed a fuel depot belonging to the Ukrainian armed forces in the south of the country. The attack also used cruise missiles fired from the Caspian Sea. The escalation of the war continues.
Ukraine seems to have the fate of Albania in 1939 and more that of the Iraqi Kurds against the Islamic State (2014). It seems that the complete occupation of Ukraine should end and that of Poland, Moldova or Finland should begin, to declare the beginning of the Third World War. The victimization of Albania, tolerating the world its occupation by fascist Italy without any opposition and in silence, was followed by the occupation of Poland by Hitler’s Germany. This act marked the beginning of World War II, which will end with the iron division of Europe into two parts and with the beginning of the Cold War.
Victimization of Ukraine today, opens the appetite for Putin to take military actions over Poland, the Balkans or the Baltic Countries…
The resumption of a new Cold War to whom it will serve, liberal democracies to continue the propaganda on Freedom as a precondition of the Rule of Law, or illiberal democracies, which have turned the State into an instrument of its kind, through which continue “experimenting” with new weapons…?!
Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it!
Meanwhile, the repetition of history always takes on the dimensions of a tragicomedy. The current situation in Ukraine remains tragic, but transferred to the UN Security Council, is proving to be a perverse Kafkaesque-grotesque situation.
The entropic death of Europe
Western European democracies fail to properly analyze where they have become as ongoing political elites. The “Iron Curtain” fell again overnight.
In Germany, the era of Angela Merkel came to an end. It will now, more and more, be considered as a lost era, especially in the field of national security. In France, the wind of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, seems to be starting now. The appearance in the French presidential election of 2022, as a kind of surprise of its kind, of the candidacy of the famous essayist Éric Zemmour, a Frenchman of Jewish descent, who recently founded a radical right-wing party, strengthens Macron’s positions, but further feeds European neo-fascism. Europe is once again falling into the trap that the failed elite in two decades of this century have repositioned: to choose between authentic reactionaries (neo-fascists), who lean more towards Putin, and a conglomeration of somnambulated modern liberals.
The new Cold War, respectively the iron curtain between Europe and the Europeans, separated the old continent from Asia as well. Liberal democracies of divided Europe naturally produce a closed system, while that type of system, according to natural laws, is doomed to gradual extinction (entropic death).
For two decades, Kosova has continued to live in this type of closed system, punished or agreed to lose its north, or continue to be closed, vegetating towards entropic death. In the European centers dominated by the neo-fascists, who flirted with Putin, an absurd type of albanophobia was promoted, which could not be agreed on where its real source is. Putin’s intention to universalize the case of Kosova, had cultivated without veneration a kind of Albano-phobia unacceptable by any sound rationale, in many European political circles!
Putin was promoting the act of secession of Kosova from the clutches of Serbian hegemony (1999) as a model or alibi to reconquer Crimea (2014) and meanwhile Donbas and Luhansk. Meanwhile, after imposing a kind of Russophobia all over Europe [this neighborhood that talks about Russophobia describes the war in Ukraine as a clash between Ukrainian gas oligarchs linked to American political structures and Russian oligarchs under Putin’s protection], it is certainly moving towards imposing a type of Yalta 2, imposing areas of Russian influence, which de facto, implies that it seeks to promote a New Global Order.
How would our great writer Gjergj Fishta, a good connoisseur of the race and genealogy of the European spirit, explain this kind of hatred cultivated by European neo-fascists, who continue to keep Kosova completely isolated, discriminated, while political Albania and not only it, but also the nation of Albanians, outside the EU, continuing to cultivate Albano-phobia to the level that even Putin could envy them !?
Avoiding the 1962 and 2022 nuclear wars; a necessity
After almost four weeks of war and its escalation, there is an attempt by the reawakened European diplomacy to stop the war through negotiations. The 2022 Ukraine crisis has begun to be likened to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which began with the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles to Cuba, fighter jets and ground troops, bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear war. The war was avoided at that time (1962) as no one considered it normal for one of the two forces to place missiles several hundred kilometers away from the other. The situation changed after the dissolution of the USSR.
But to bring back the era of the 1962 Cuban conflict, the one who at the Munich Security Summit (2007) described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century, would draft the ultimatum; as recognized on January 21, 2022 by NATO. Through this ultimatum, he asked the West for a written commitment to not expand NATO to Ukraine and Georgia, and also to withdraw Atlantic Alliance personnel and weapons from the East. As expected, Putin’s ultimatum, the United States and all its allies would give the right answer: No.
The Siberian bear shuddered with grief. He had failed to recycle the history of 1962. Now he is swinging new hypersonic missiles, not even ruling out the threat of escalation of the war towards the Balkans and the Baltics. For this reason, we are now closer than ever to a global conflict – a nuclear war, codenamed the final battle of reality.
Why the two Albanian Republics need a national strategy
For years, at least since the Republic of Kosova declared independence (2008), respectively when political Albania joined NATO (2009) we should have had a national defense strategy. In 2009, Albania became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – NATO, and after the start of the war in Ukraine and the escalation of threats from Serbia for the possibility of starting a new Serbo-Albanian war, the decision of the Government of Kosova to accelerate NATO membership procedures, should be seen as part of a national security strategy.
It is vital to take the first step towards NATO membership – that towards partnership in the Peace Program with NATO, which is crucial to the next step, full accession with rights and obligations, to complete the national security architecture. This step may be preceded by the act of institutionalization of the National Strategy, which should be the product of a joint work of the institutions of our two republics.
Putin’s strategy: Ukraine’s ghettoization
Well-known political scientist Johannes Varwick assumes that Putin will use all his forces to accomplish his goals in Ukraine, including nuclear weapons, if necessary. [2] Johannes Varwick is a Professor of International Relations and European Politics at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. In an interview with Germany’s editorial network (RND), Varwick explains that he believes Putin will do everything possible to invade Ukraine and establish a new government in Kiev. Professor Varwick emphasizes that if this means a nuclear escalation at the end, then Putin will use this tool as well. If the invasion of Ukraine can only be achieved by bombing, which means ‘burned carpet’, as in Grozny or Aleppo, then Putin will go just as far. He is willing to take any risk. [3]
Our military expert Dritan Goxhaj, when analyzing the progress of the Russian army towards the realization of Putin’s doctrine and strategy in Ukraine, regarding the possibilities of ending the war, has two theses:
First, “if Russia accepts a ceasefire, but it retains control of the Sea of Azov, Mariupol, Donbass, Luhansk, Mykolayev and Kherson, then it would be a partial loss for Ukraine.” Second, “if Odessa were added to that, then it would be a total loss for Ukraine.” Therefore, he concludes, the costly and slow progress of Russian forces in this war should not be misinterpreted as it is being done so far, as a failure of Moscow’s political and military goals. [4]
But the Russian war in Ukraine has all the premises to be described as a “War of Choice” [according to Haas] and not to be turned into a Russian grave, Putin seems to agree with the occupation of its most strategic areas and its complete ghettoization.
Given Putin’s stance, the West is faced with the alternative: to offer dialogue to Putin and to surrender or engage with all its capabilities to “freeze” this war. But even its “freezing” in the meantime, as Russia moves towards full control of Ukraine’s most strategic areas, such as the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, their exits along with Odessa, implies a kind of capitulation and acceptance of the ghetto act.
However, the war will not end there, but will gradually turn into a typical partisan war.
Vladimir Putin’s eventual victory in Ukraine would pave the way for the next goal – the Western Balkans, as here Putin has managed in time to turn Serbia and the “Republika Srpska” (Bosnia and Herzegovina) into vassals of Russia. Putin claims to be implementing the Russian strategy for the Balkans through these vassals and proxy actors, that is, “at the hands of the Balkans, so that the Balkans can fight with each other, causing trouble and unrest to NATO and the EU in the Balkans and weakening Western alliances.”[5]
Let us recall this significant fact, only in the last two or three years, Russia has supplied Serbia with dozens of T-72MS tanks, reconnaissance armored vehicles, modified MIG-29 aircraft, Mi-35 M and Mi-17V5 helicopters, missile systems “Kornat”, “ZRKP”, “Pancer C1M” etc. [6] All of this military arsenal is clear, targets Kosova and Albanians, without excluding other neighbors.
Putin’s eventual victory in Ukraine would change Belgrade’s behavior by 180 degrees, not hesitating to embrace Russia in full readiness to embark on a military adventure. Meaning, even Europe is between its strategic shaping and entropic death. European geopolitics, consequently, the Albanian matters, meanwhile face Putin’s bloodshed to revise history, respectively its possible return to 1991 state of affairs. Clearly, Putin claims a New World Order with a Yalta-type Second Agreement. In this context, both Western European and Albanian geopolitics are called to defend their vital interests.
*Dr. Sadri Ramabaja, Executive Director of the Albanian Institute for Geopolitics / Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and National Security, ILIRIA University/ Republic of Kosovo.
3. Ibd
4. https://www.ishgj.org/analize/a-po-i-arrin-rusia-qellimet-strategjike-me-ane-te-luftes-ne-ukraine/
6. http://www.gazetadita.al/putin-dhe-shqiptaret-si-eshte-e-mundur-qe-ne-mes-te-nje-lufte-presidenti-i-rusise-se-madhe-permend-vazhdimisht-shqiperine-e-vogel/
