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Greek reaction to the Yugoslav Wars refers to the geopolitical relations between
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
and the countries that emerged from the
breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
as a result of the
Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...
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 and the Church of Greece, among others). Despite any reactions, Greece allowed the NATO forces pass to the north.


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. 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. During the 1990s, Greek public opinion expressed support for the actions of the Serbs, making Greece differ in its position from fellow EU states. 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". There was a lack of criticism from Church of Greece officials toward war crimes committed by the Serbs. Priests made regular visits to Serbia and to Bosnian areas under Serb control, and assisted the Serbs both materially and spiritually. Some of them were decorated by
Biljana Plavšić Biljana Plavšić ( sr-Cyrl, Биљана Плавшић; born 7 July 1930) is a former Bosnian Serb politician and university professor who served as President of Republika Srpska and was later convicted of crimes against humanity for her role ...
, then President of Republika Srpska. At the time of the
Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
, the Church of Greece declared
Radovan Karadžić Radovan Karadžić ( sr-cyr, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Bosnian Serb politician, psychiatrist and poet. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Tr ...
, then leader of the Bosnian Serbs, a Christian hero and awarded him with honours in 1993 at a large gathering in Piraeus Stadium. The
Church of Greece The Church of Greece ( el, Ἐκκλησία τῆς Ἑλλάδος, Ekklēsía tē̂s Helládos, ), part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. It ...
supported materially and morally the Bosnian Serb leadership in the
Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
. 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.
Christodoulos of Athens Christodoulos (17 January 1939 – 28 January 2008) ( el, Χριστόδουλος, born Christos Paraskevaidis, ''Χρήστος Παρασκευαΐδης'') was Archbishop of Athens and All Greece and as such the primate of the Autocephalous O ...
after his election as Archbishop of Greece in 1998 used sermons to criticise NATO and western actions during the
Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war ...
. The Church leadership along with elements of Greek society espousing traditional and anti-
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
views had attempted to leverage their influence to steer Greek state policy toward a pro-Serbian/Yugoslav direction. In March 1995, a unit of 100 Greek volunteers that came to be known as the Greek Volunteer Guard was formed in support of the
Army of the Republika Srpska The Army of Republika Srpska ( sr, Војска Републике Српске/Vojska Republike Srpske; ВРС/VRS), commonly referred to in English as the Bosnian Serb Army, was the military of Republika Srpska (RS), the self-proclaimed Serb ...
at the request of
Ratko Mladić Ratko Mladić ( sr-Cyrl, Ратко Младић, ; born 12 March 1942) is a Bosnian Serb convicted war criminal and colonel-general who led the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) during the Yugoslav Wars. In 2017, he was found guilty of committing ...
.
Golden Dawn Golden Dawn or The Golden Dawn may refer to: Organizations * Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a nineteenth century magical order based in Britain ** The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Inc., a modern revival founded in 1977 ** Open Source ...
members also joined Serbian paramilitary groups and were participants of the
Srebrenica massacre The Srebrenica massacre ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Masakr u Srebrenici, Масакр у Сребреници), also known as the Srebrenica genocide ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Genocid u Srebrenici, Геноцид у Сребрен ...
. Eudoxis Doxiadis notes that the Greek Volunteer Guard found a positive reaction in Greece. 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.


Kosovo War

As a result of the
Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war ...
and
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an a ...
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. 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 The Clinton–Lewinsky scandal was a sex scandal involving Bill Clinton, the president of the United States, and Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. Their sexual relationship lasted between 1995 and 1997. Clinton ended a televised speech in ...
. Fears that the Kosovo war might create a
Greater Albania Greater Albania is an irredentist and nationalist concept that seeks to unify the lands that many Albanians consider to form their national homeland. It is based on claims on the present-day or historical presence of Albanian populations in th ...
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 sq, Epiri i Veriut rup, Epiru di Nsusu , type = Part of the wider historic region of Epirus , image_blank_emblem = , blank_emblem_type = , image_map = Epirus across Greece Albania4.svg , map_caption ...
, which would alter the demographic balance of the area in territories inhabited by the Greek minority. 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. More than 10,000 Greeks participated in the
anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to p ...
and
anti-NATO Anti-NATO is the group of the Russian second State Duma deputies united by a desire to prevent the inclusion of Eastern Europe in NATO. Anti-NATO was formed in the State Duma in 1997 and included 257 members of the State Duma (out of 450) and 47 ...
protests. 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. The Greek Army established a refugee camp in
Pogradec Pogradec () is the eleventh most populous city in Albania and the capital of the eponymous municipality. It is located on a narrow plain between two mountain chains along the southwestern banks of the Lake of Ohrid. Its climate is profoundly in ...
, 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.


Missions

On 10 June 1999, Greece provided facilities to ease the advance of forces in the context of the so-called “JOINT Guardian” Plan. Under UN auspices (Chapter VII of the UN Charter), the Multinational Force was called Kosovo Force (KFOR) and was a peace enforcement operation. On 11 June 1999, Greece decided to participate with a force at Brigade Level, providing assistance for the implementation of the mission to create a secure environment for the population in Kosovo and ensure safe return of the refugees. The 34th Mechanized Brigade of 1162 men was allocated to KFOR, along with a C-130 air-carrier and its crew, as well as 157 officers and soldiers for Host-Nation Support. The operation was also supported by an Infantry Company with Engineer Elements of more than 60 officers and soldiers, stationed at Thessaloniki. In Kossovo, the Hellenic Contingent conducted hundreds of reconnaissance, escorting, traffic security and control missions, including not only Weapon Staging Areas guarding, but also monuments guarding like Christian Churches. A recognized achievement was the discovery of an ammunition depot in which a great number of arms and ammunition were hidden. KFOR recognized the achievement as the second most significant and successful discovery. The Hellenic Contingent in Kosovo destroyed more than 4.000 arms of various types and caliber, which were hidden in shelters by paramilitary and extremist groups, which were and gathered by KFOR. Furthermore, the Hellenic Contingent contributed greatly to the transportation, escort and delivery of 160 tons of humanitarian aid by "FOCUS" organization to various villages in Kosovo, along with providing medical treatment to the local population.


Sources

{{reflist 1990s in Christianity
Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...
Yugoslav Wars