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Argument: An independent Kosovo would be financially costly to its neighbors

Issue Report: Kosovo independence

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  • M. Bozinovichand. “Kosovo Independence: A Costly Supposition”. Servianna.com. 4/10/04 – “In 1927 London Times remarked that ‘Everyone knows that Albania happens to be an independent state today, simply because the Powers did not quite know what to do about it when the Turkish Empire broke up.’ The Turkish ambassador to Vienna himself has warned the proponents of independence, Austria and Italy, that annual cost would be 15 million gold franks (about $1.5 billion). In 1923 French diplomat M. Hunger corroborated this figure with a remark that the amount corresponds to the country’s economy. In other words, cost of the government in Albania equals the value of all the goods produced. To recoup the tribute paid to Albania, both Italy and Austria had bouts with deep diplomatic and military involvement in Albania, all without any profit and with dangerous and deadly geopolitical outcomes for the region. Kosovo might be of similar fate.”