Politico: Angela Merkel: No Balkan border changes

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić last month floated the idea of partitioning Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008. The most commonly discussed scenario would involve the north of Kosovo being recognized as part of Serbia. Another often-discussed possibility is that a mainly ethnic Albanian part of southern Serbia could join Kosovo. [...]

For years, international officials have strenuously rejected further border changes in the Western Balkans, which was torn apart by war in 1990s as Yugoslavia collapsed into smaller states. Any change to Kosovo’s borders would prompt secession demands from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb Republic and likely spark calls for other boundary changes in the region. [...]

The United States has so far stayed out of the renewed debate, prompting speculation that U.S. President Donald Trump could be open to brokering a partition deal.

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Al Jazeera: Erdogan in the Balkans: A neo-Ottoman quest?

The visit has a much more pragmatic purpose. Twelve new agreements were signed with the Serbian government, including an update to the free-trade deal (pdf) the two countries concluded back in 2009. Together with President Aleksandar Vucic, Erdogan pledged to push the annual trade turnover between the two countries from $800 million to $1bn. By virtue of its size, Serbia is Turkey's most important market in ex-Yugoslavia, well ahead of kin countries, such as Bosnia or Kosovo.

This is not to negate the role played by Islam and the Ottoman past. Erdogan's trip to the Muslim-majority area of Sandzak on October 11 is asserting his role as leader of a community transcending the Turkish republic's borders. Novi Pazar, the capital of the Sandzak region split between Serbia and Montenegro, was covered in billboards with the Turkish president's face and "hosgeldiniz" ("welcome" in Turkish) in big letters. [...]

It is remarkable that Erdogan has found a partner in Aleksandar Vucic. Serbia's president cut his teeth in the ultranationalist Radical Party in the 1990s and served as Slobodan Milosevic's minister of information. But now he is the voice of pragmatism: "This is not 1389. Serbia and Turkey are friendly countries," he said, referring to the year of the Battle of Kosovo between Serbian forces and the invading Ottoman army. [...]

The cost of engaging Turkey is minimal. Nationalists in Serbia cheer at Erdogan's disputes with the US and EU and the blooming friendship with Putin. Those who point at the unsettling parallels between Vucic's strongman tactics and Erdogan's authoritarian ways are simply ignored.

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