By Costas Iordanidis

...The Greek government lives with the hope of transforming the Balkans into a “European neighborhood” — certainly a tempting slogan, but also rather utopian, as the European prospects of southwestern Europe are essentially non-existent, due to the underdevelopment of these countries and the lack of any serious interest in boosting their economies.

NATO’s “humanitarian war” against Serbia resulted in the ethnic cleansing of the Serbian population and the occupation of Kosovo by the Albanians.

In view of this, the most likely outcome is the creation of an independent Albanian state, as Albanian nationalism is rife and the West does not appear to have any objections...

But despite Greece’s significant contribution to the economies of these border states, its influence has not only failed to increase but is waning.

The chief support to the governments of Tirana, Skopje and Sofia is not being provided by Greece, nor by the EU, but by the USA.

In other words, Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo are being transformed into an American, rather than European, neighborhood — something Greece should bear in mind now it has a seat on the UN Security Council, which will sooner or later broach the subject of Kosovo...