Can't make this stuff up.

So the ethnic Serbs in Kosovo are upset because the Kosovo govt wants them to have Kosovo license plates instead of Serbia ones. And now NATO is on alert over possible hostilities in the Balkans as a result. With Russia backing Serbia, and the situation in Ukraine, this could be another European proxy war that would have NATO engaged this time should it come to that. Kosovo is now postponing implementation of that rule as a result but the Balkans are always a powder keg and we'll see what happens here.

Seriously people? F-ing license plates!?

https://www.foxnews.com/world/nato-prep ... eopardized

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62373149

Being married to a 1st generation Aussie whose parents are from the former Yugoslavia, and are of Serbian blood I can attest to this. Even after living 40 years in Australia they still talk about politics from “my country”. After attending a few too many what they affectionately call Wog Balls here it’s extremely easy to understand how they behave towards one another. Not saying it’s right, after centuries of bad blood there is no easy fix it seems.

To be honest, it's not like the disputes leading up to World War I were much more sensible than this...

TWA772LR wrote:

Can't make this stuff up.

So the ethnic Serbs in Kosovo are upset because the Kosovo govt wants them to have Kosovo license plates instead of Serbia ones. And now NATO is on alert over possible hostilities in the Balkans as a result. With Russia backing Serbia, and the situation in Ukraine, this could be another European proxy war that would have NATO engaged this time should it come to that. Kosovo is now postponing implementation of that rule as a result but the Balkans are always a powder keg and we'll see what happens here.

Seriously people? F-ing license plates!?

https://www.foxnews.com/world/nato-prep ... eopardized

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62373149

They’ve had a beef with.....the world, for something from the 13th Century apparently.

The license plate issue is just the trigger, the underlying hostilities have never gone away. Fortunately the NATO presence is enough to keep it from erupting into open warfare.

TWA772LR wrote:

Can't make this stuff up.

So the ethnic Serbs in Kosovo are upset because the Kosovo govt wants them to have Kosovo license plates instead of Serbia ones. And now NATO is on alert over possible hostilities in the Balkans as a result. With Russia backing Serbia, and the situation in Ukraine, this could be another European proxy war that would have NATO engaged this time should it come to that. Kosovo is now postponing implementation of that rule as a result but the Balkans are always a powder keg and we'll see what happens here.

Seriously people? F-ing license plates!?

https://www.foxnews.com/world/nato-prep ... eopardized

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62373149

Crazy stuff

It's not license plates changing design or something, though. It's acknowledging the existence of the state of Kosovo, on your prized car.

Time to kick Serbia out of EU candidate status me thinks.

So have two "official" license plate designs, one the standard Kosovo one and one that is also official but says "ethnic Serbian" or whatever.

But that would make too much sense...

TangoandCash wrote:

So have two "official" license plate designs, one the standard Kosovo one and one that is also official but says "ethnic Serbian" or whatever.

But that would make too much sense...

It would also easily show who was who. That might lead to more attacks.

Tensions over Kosovo have been rising in the last year or so, but this has not been widely reported. Licence plates is just a symptom of this buildup

Look at the UK, one could/can put a marker on their plate of England, Wales, Scotland, NI or before Brexit, the EU circle of stares on a blue background. Perhaps that could be the compromise here, allow a Serbian sub-marker on the plate.

ltbewr wrote:

Look at the UK, one could/can put a marker on their plate of England, Wales, Scotland, NI or before Brexit, the EU circle of stares on a blue background. Perhaps that could be the compromise here, allow a Serbian sub-marker on the plate.

Once you allow a numberplate sub-marker in places like Kosovo or Bosnia... then everybody feels socially compelled by their side to change their numberplate to have their particular sub-marker. Individuals who don't change their numberplate will receive "reminders" from members of their community.

At which point, a car from side A that ventures into an area populated mainly by people from side B becomes rather more vulnerable - maybe a few overexcited yobs decide to throw a few stones, knife tyres or smash windscreens of certain passing or parked cars. Other times, police officers from one ethnic group can pull specific cars off the road for "vehicle safety checks" and issue arbitrary fines.

Very quickly, the mixing of people from the 2 communities stops, and long term peaceful co-existence, or even ethnic social mixing, becomes harder to achieve

DJ6, that was what I was getting at with my post but you said it a lot better.

These two "sides" and never going to live together in harmony, reminds me of the Middle East.

readytotaxi wrote:

These two "sides" and never going to live together in harmony, reminds me of the Middle East.

Best friends forever ? No
Live in the same area and coexist without taking up firearms ? Should be possible, and I say this as someone who had enmity of the other side in the Middle East drilled into him throughout childhood

There's plenty of parts of the world where ancient feuds lasted hundreds of years but the leaders managed to persuade their communities to put the weapons down and at least trade commercially with the other side.

Before anyone asks... yes, I've been to Kosovo multiple times, and I'm aware of the mutual feelings between the 2 sides

This story really shows our Great Ape ancestry. Still have shitfights over nothing.

Sometimes, when people will not stop fighting a war, and will not lay down their weapons, you just have to kill them. I hope it does not come to that. If people don’t want to live in Kosovo, leave! Get out if you don’t like it.

hh65man wrote:

Being married to a 1st generation Aussie whose parents are from the former Yugoslavia, and are of Serbian blood I can attest to this. Even after living 40 years in Australia they still talk about politics from “my country”. After attending a few too many what they affectionately call Wog Balls here it’s extremely easy to understand how they behave towards one another. Not saying it’s right, after centuries of bad blood there is no easy fix it seems.

Using ethnic slurs, regardless of "them" using said terms, is bad form.

seems to have spilled over to the current World Cup in Qatar.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63768983

Kosovo pledged in Brussels back in 2013 to allow Serbs in the North a certain degree of autonomy. Sadly this has not happened. Its actually not about car plates its a much wider issue.

If the Kosovo government attacks the minority Serbs in the North then Serbia as guarantors have to step in.

The Kosovo government has also threatened KFOR that they will undermine them and go in unilaterally. That would be a very bad move. If they did then the EU and other organisations should sanction Kosovo.