WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, Livorno, FAI: Italian militarism in the Balkans (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Since its formation, the Italian state has developed its own militarism

and has played its own role in the imperialist and colonialist
confrontation between the powers. The Italian state has always played
the role of the ugly duckling, the small and young nation excluded from
the round table of the great powers, which is entitled only to the
crumbs of the cake that the richest European nations are dividing. ----
Despite this victimistic discourse, the Italian state has built its
foundations with war, militarism, imperialism. In fact, even before the
establishment of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, when the Italian
peninsula and islands were still divided into different states and
kingdoms, the Kingdom of Sardinia participated in the Crimean War
(1853-1856) alongside the United Kingdom, France and the Ottoman Empire
against Russia. Participation in one of the main conflicts that were
taking place at the time in the context of the crisis of the Ottoman
Empire, gave the Savoy dynasty that reigned over the Kingdom of Sardinia
the international legitimacy to unify Italy and lead the new Italian
national state.

A mixture of victimhood and revenge, together with the myth of the power
of the Roman Empire, are among the main reasons for the imperialist
ideology of the state in Italy.

In over 150 years of history the Italian state has conducted wars of
aggression and military expeditions mainly towards: Eastern Europe; Horn
of Africa and North Africa; Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean.

It is a story of aggression and military occupation, which especially in
the Balkans was oriented by a violent racist and nationalist policy of
Italianisation. In this region, Italian militarism and imperialism have
played a very heavy role. The claim of Dalmatia as Italian territory and
the anti-Slavic violence since the 19th century, the military occupation
of the island of Rhodes and the Dodecanese after the First World War,
the attempted colonization of Albania in 1920 and the invasion carried
out by fascist regime, as well as the aggression against Greece during
the Second World War. These are just some of the examples of how Italian
militarism has historically been oriented towards the Balkans.

However, it is also a story of revolt, solidarity, insubordination. Just
think of the deserters and mutineers of the First World War, or the
Ancona insurrection of 1920, when the soldiers of an army regiment
refused to embark for Vlore, Albania, and took control of the city of
Ancona together with workers. In that movement the role of the
anarchists, together with the other two revolutionary currents, the
socialist and the republican, was fundamental. That revolt was one of
the main insurrectional attempts of the revolutionary period of
1919-1920 in Italy. In the Second World War we remember those who
deserted and joined the resistance in Italy to avoid being sent to the
front in Albania or Greece, or those who, already deployed there,
decided to join the local partisan groups.

The aspirations of Italian militarism in the Balkans collapsed after the
military defeat of the fascist regime in the Second World War and the
overthrow of the dictatorship in Italy with the mass uprising of April
1945. In the context of the Cold War the Italian army remained outside
from the Balkans for 45 years. At that time in Italy the region
bordering Yugoslavia was heavily militarized.

What is the influence of Italian militarism in the Balkans today?

The Italian military returned to the region in the 1990s, intervening in
various contexts.

NATO launched Operation "Deny Flight" in 1993, which involved the
establishment of a no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main
commands of the operation were established in Italy and the Italian Air
Force also participated in the operation. In 1995 NATO bombed Republika
Srpska with the "Deliberate Force" operation, the bombing flights
departed from Italian airports. In 1995 the Italian Army participated in
the NATO "IFOR/SFOR" operation in Bosnia with a contingent of 2500 soldiers.

In Albania, after a small logistical military mission in 1991, the
Italian state sent a contingent of over 2,500 soldiers in 1997 as part
of the multinational operation "Alba" whose commander was an Italian
officer. Italy sent another contingent to Albania in 1999.

In 1999 the NATO "Allied Force" mission against Serbia, which culminated
with the bombing of Belgrade, saw the direct participation of the
Italian Air Force.

The NATO operation "KFOR" also began in 1999 in Kosovo. The Italian
state participated with an important role from the beginning,
participating with one of the largest contingents and leading the
operation for many years.

The Italian military participated in many other military operations in
the region. We have limited ourselves to mentioning the main ones. ----
Currently the Balkans are one of the regions in which the Italian Armed
Forces are most present. ---- In 2023 almost 2000 Italian soldiers are
still present in several countries such as Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania
and Kosovo. The Italian contingent in Kosovo is currently the largest,
with over 1500 men and almost 400 vehicles and 2 aircraft. Consider that
the NATO operation "Joint Enterprise/KFOR" is made up of 4,100 men.
There are concerns about the increase in the Turkish contingent in
Kosovo, which has reached 780 units in recent months. Turkey is also
expected to take command of KFOR in the autumn. The concerns are more
than valid. But we must also consider who is responsible for the current
situation in Kosovo, Italy has had almost uninterrupted command of KFOR
for 10 years since 2013, leading the operation also in the 2000s, and in
the last four years the Italian military presence has more than doubled
(in 2020 it was around 630 men) in a more general increase in the NATO
contingent.

Italian military involvement in the region changed after the invasion of
Ukraine by the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022. New military
operations began under the shield of NATO or the EU.

In Bulgaria, the Multinational Battle Group NATO - Bulgaria was created
as part of the NATO operation "enhanced Vigilance Activity" which
deployed 40,000 troops on the "eastern flank of NATO". Other Battle
Groups present in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary
and Romania. The Italian Armed Forces are responsible for the command of
the Battle Group in Bulgaria, where they have deployed 2100 men, 10
aircraft and 450 vehicles.

It can therefore be stated that the Italian military is present in the
Balkans today with more than 4000 men, approximately 850 vehicles and 12
aircraft. If we consider that in 2023 the Italian state will deploy a
maximum number of 11499 men in military operations outside its borders,
we see that more than a third of the total is deployed in the Balkans.
More than in Africa and the Middle East.

The worsening of the war in Eastern Europe does not explain the strong
presence of the Italian Armed Forces in the Balkans since the 1990s,
with a leading role also in some NATO operations. There are direct
interests of the Italian ruling class in that region, and for the
ideology of the Italian State the Balkans are a "natural" area of
intervention. In fact, the Italian state has always looked at Albania as
its own garden, and Italian capitalism has strong interests in the
country. The fourth bank in Albania, "Intesa San Paolo Bank Albania", is
owned by the Italian bank "Intesa San Paolo". The TAP trans-Adriatic gas
pipeline passes through Albania, bringing natural gas from Azerbaijan to
Italy via Georgia, Turkey and Greece. In a very different way, the
Italian state also has special consideration for Bulgaria. In fact,
Bulgarian elites traditionally have close relationships with Italian
ones and there are many economic and financial ties. The second bank in
Bulgaria, "Unicredit Bulbank", is owned by the Italian bank "Unicredit".
When Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto met Bulgarian Defense
Minister Dimitar Stoyanov in December 2022 at Bezmer Air Base in
Bulgaria according to media reports, they talked about business. Sofia
will purchase new military vehicles, radars, F-16 aircraft and artillery
supports from Rome. Also on the agenda was the VIII European Corridor
project. This railway and road infrastructure for military and
industrial cooperation will pass from Bulgaria, to Macedonia, to
Albania, connecting the coasts of the Black Sea with those of the
Adriatic Sea. It is considered a strategic infrastructure connecting
that region to Southern Italy, but it is also a big money machine for
everyone involved in its construction. We therefore see that the Italian
state continues to play the role of militarist power in the Balkans,
pursuing its imperialist interests in the region.

This is just a simple contribution to the debate. We hope to have given
you some insights into the influence of Italian militarism in the
Balkans. For us this is the most important and original suggestion that
we can bring to the Book Fair. It's not just about doing analysis, we
would like to share information and perspectives to develop common
points to fight together and develop international solidarity networks.

Posted in Anarchism, Antifascism, Antimilitarism, General, International.

Tagged with Albania, Ancona, Balkans, Balkan Anarchist Bookfair,
Bulgaria, colonialism, F.A.I., war, international, struggle, memories,
militarism, NATO, Russia, Umanità Nova, Yugoslavi
By collective - September 12, 2023

https://collettivoanarchico.noblogs.org/post/2023/09/12/il-militarismo-italiano-nei-balcani/
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