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It seems that the stars have not been in Europe's favor in recent months. In addition to the various problems it faces with the economy, the refugee crisis and closed borders, the blow to Brussels has also been added.
The heinous and condemnable attack in Belgium has provoked the revulsion of the international community but has made some in Europe feel satisfied, not of course for the victims, but for the …proactive policy they are following in the matter of closing European borders. We are referring, of course, to the far right across Europe, and in particular the Austrian government and the Danubian Visegrad allies who have blatantly violated the Schengen Treaty, closing the borders of the central Balkan route and “punishing” Greece for allegedly not adequately guarding its own borders with Turkey.
At this moment, in some of the well-preserved imperial buildings of the Habsburgs, the Austrian Chancellor and his ministers are rubbing their hands in satisfaction with the closed border policy they have adopted and feel vindicated by the turn of events.
At the same time, keeping indelible in their minds the tradition of the sieges of Vienna by the Ottomans in the 16th and 17th centuries. they seem to indirectly consider themselves defenders of a Europe of Charlemagne's character and continuers of the imperial security policy of the Habsburgs for central Europe, this time against not a Muslim army, but the soft power of the civilian Muslim refugees who flock to the Balkans and the Danubian countries for a better future.
In the arena of Austrian diplomacy, the future of Schengen, the Eurozone, and ultimately the United Europe is currently at stake.
The Charlemagne vision of Europe from Vienna does not include the Balkans, which it sees as a foreign field and suitable for experimentation of all kinds. The Balkans with their mainly Byzantine past are treated not as Europe but as an…exotic periphery of Europe, hence the policy of closed borders.
In the case of Greece during the current crisis, they seem to see Athens not through the ancient Greek model, which they even maintain as a cultural inheritance for themselves through Central European neoclassicism, but as Byzantium. The late-adherent Austrian rulers seem to forget the constructive role of Greece in their integration into a united Europe, but also the fundamental cultural importance of the Greeks for the EU.
But the biggest operational mistake of Austrian policy is that with closed borders it will not succeed despite its opposite expectations. The arrival of spring is already opening the mountain passes of the Balkans and the crowded refugees will pour into the Balkans to the north.
If the Austrians close their fences further north, they will have achieved the worst, i.e. the spread of the crisis throughout the peninsula with all that this implies for the security of the peninsula from the action of the Islamic State. Then on their doorstep they will not see desperate civilian refugees seeking a better economic future, but Islamic State fighters who will be more popular and will seek revenge through communication for yet another reason, the humanitarian crisis and misery that Muslim refugees in the Balkans have fallen into today due to the closed borders.
With this in mind, the Balkan countries are called upon not to be carried away by Austrian policy but to cooperate with Greece in the flexible management of refugees, in accordance with the principles of human rights and an objective view of reality, avoiding turning the Balkans, our common cultural space, into a misery camp for the sake of some countries in NW Europe.
The Austrians, and those who tacitly support them in the EU, must understand in time that closed borders are an old-fashioned tactic and extremely inadequate in the modern globalized environment of the internet.
Europe needs modern security methods adapted to respect the human rights of all people regardless of gender, religion and origin. Let them in Vienna understand that with their frivolous policy, all they achieve is to jeopardize the future of the United Europe by abolishing Schengen and the Euro. This should not happen under any circumstances, because then the consequences for Europe will be disastrous and they themselves will be held accountable in history.
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