Tensions in the Balkans

Jan 24, 2023, 10:00 PM

Recently there was a standoff on the Kosovo-Serbia border. This was after Kosovo ordered drivers to surrender their Serbian-issued licence plates and replace them with Kosovo plates. Serbs living in northern Kosovo started erecting barricades and Kosovo residents confronted them. A traffic jam ensued, and so did a small shootout. The shooting has now died down but the threats have continued. A shootout over licence plates may seem excessive, but this is the Balkans, the region where a shootout led to WW1 and where today many ethnicities live in relatively small areas where the political borders don’t match the ethnic borders.

Adnan Khan sits down with Petret Salmani who is from the Balkans to make sense of the tensions as well as the broader region