To: Rande Is who wrote (4893 ) 4/2/1999 10:35:00 AM From: Bucky Katt Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 57584
Milosevic asks Russia for military aid -BELGRADE, April 2 (AFP) - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic asked Russia for military aid Friday during a meeting in Belgrade with Russian and Belorussian parliament members, the official Tanjug agency reported. Milosevic asked for the aid to "more easily defend" Yugoslavia against NATO attacks, Tanjug said. Now, let us think for a moment, Russia is in a near collapse, but can now sell military arms, and maybe join in a full scale Euro theater war. Combine this with the failure of the new Euro currancy, hmmm, maybe a war cures all European economic ill's? ___________________________________________________________________ Turkey expresses concern over Russian support for Yugoslavia ANKARA, April 2 (AFP) - Turkish Defence Minister Hikmet Sami Turk on Friday expressed concern over Russia's support for Yugoslavia, which he said encouraged Belgrade's intransigence on resolving the Kosovo issue. "It is worrying that Russia is engaged in initiatives that would encourage the Serbs' wrong attitude instead of using its influence (with Yugoslavia) for a peaceful solution," Turk told the Anatolia news agency. Turk's comments came in an evaluation of Moscow's decision to send a part of its Black Sea Fleet to the Adriatic through Turkey's Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits to monitor the burgeoning crisis in Yugoslavia. On Friday morning, a reconnaisance ship, the Liman, left the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol bound for the Adriatic. According to unconfirmed repprts, three more ships are preparing to set out from Sevastopol. Turkey has granted permission to Russia to send the vessels through under the 1936 Montreux convention governing international traffic through the straits. Ankara cannot deny passage to the Russian vessels as the Montreux convention allows Turkey to refuse permission to military ships only if it is either openly at war with the country concerned or if it sees the passage as a threat to its own security. Turk acknowledged that the passage of the Russian ships from the Bosphorus and Dardanelles was in line with the convention, but expressed concern that their presence in the Adriatic would spur the Serbian onslaught against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. "Besides, there is the possibility that it might lead to some negative developments due to the fact that NATO has a permanent naval force stationed in the Adriatic," he added.Meanwhile, Turkey's former prime minister Tansu Ciller urged the government to refuse permission to the Russian ships to pass through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. "These ships are not going to help our Moslem brothers in Kosovo. I call on (Prime Minister Bulent) Ecevit to do his duty," Ciller told a party rally in the northwestern Turkish town of Adapazari on Friday. "We should not forget Kosovo and stand alongside the Moslems there," the conservative leader was quoted as saying by Anatolia. Now this is getting interesting. Wonder when China will check in?