No Turk at the head of EUFOR Althea

(BRUSSELS2) There was talk of it, however. The gradual withdrawal of Europeans from the Balkans has, in fact, resulted in the first country contributing to the European military stabilization mission in Bosnia EUFOR Althea being today… a non-member State of the European Union. In this case, Turkey! Singular reversal of situation for the successor of the Ottoman Empire which was the supervisory authority of the region for centuries.

The logic followed until then would have been to offer the command of the force (1) to the Turks. What they expected. But what did not seem possible by the “EU” character of the mission (2). The military committee therefore gave a negative opinion on but then proposed the post of deputy. Vexed, the Turks refused, according to the information that reached me.

Comment: this is the first time to my knowledge in the short history of Defense Europe that this situation (major presence of a non-member state) has occurred. And this shows how the CFSP remains both fragile and subject to the vagaries of the will of the Member States and how much the pressures, both financial (budgetary restrictions) and operational (engagement in Afghanistan in particular) are strong. This illustrates, more than ever, the need to set up Althea II, a simple non-executive mission and no longer a stabilization mission.

(1) Command of the operation is provided by D-Saceur, Althea being placed in “Berlin Plus” format.

(2) Incidentally, with a Turkish commander at the head of Althea and an Austrian High Representative (OHR/EUSR), we reconstructed somewhat the historical domination of the two former tutelary powers over Bosnia. Maybe a little “too much”.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(photo credit: EUFOR Althea - destruction of weapons)