A Turkish commando battalion requested by NATO has arrived in Kosovo to assist in quelling recent violent unrest in the Balkan country.
The Turkish Defense Ministry shared a video Sunday showing troops wearing the insignia of the Kosovo Force, a NATO-led peacekeeping mission established in 1999, departing Turkey and arriving in Kosovo.
Serbia and its former province Kosovo have been at odds for decades, with Belgrade refusing to recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence. The violence near their shared border has stirred fear of a renewal of a 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo that claimed more than 10,000 lives and resulted in the KFOR peacekeeping mission. Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo’s sovereignty and has maintained close relations with the country since the late 1990s.
“Turkey is an important and highly valued ally, making key contributions to NATO. This includes troops for our peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, which is even more important now, when tensions are high. I thank Turkey for sending reinforcements to northern Kosovo, following the recent unrest,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Sunday.
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