Yugoslavia, like Albania, in the era of “socialism” produced weapons in abundance, and when the warehouses were opened, they flooded the Balkans.

The beginning was laid by Slobodan Milosevic, when, with the beginning of the collapse of Yugoslavia in the early 90s, foreseeing the creation of nation-states, he armed his compatriots in Bosnia and Croatia so that they could start an armed struggle for the implementation of the doctrine of “all Serbs in one Serbia”, which led to federal crisis.

(now Serbian) Belgrade, since the Serbian state army did not officially participate in the war, lavishly armed armed paramilitary organizations formed from all kinds of criminals or fanatical nationalists, in the name of protecting the “holy and holy” nation, in the neighboring republics.

“Leaders” such as the notorious Arkan, Captain Dragan, Cesely and others, in addition to slaughtering civilians in the villages, indulged in the smuggling of drugs and weapons that fed the gangs under their control, which they did on behalf of great work.

I remember that in the early 90s, when we “ran” to cover the hostilities, in Belgrade for two hundred marks you could buy a brand new Zastava pistol, and for five hundred – a brilliant Yugoslav Kalashnikov.

Only at the street tables on the main street of “Knyaz Mikhailov” you did not find weapons for sale, because in the surrounding alleys the mafiosi supplied you with everything you wanted, from pistols and Kalashnikovs to bazookas and grenades.

At night, there were regular gang wars in Belgrade, and the arms and ammunition factory in Kragujevac, which is still operating and producing weapons that Serbia exports, was not only enough for paramilitary warlords, but also for smuggling, which, of course, expanded into perfect cooperation, including in other warring areas!

A similar picture, especially around smuggling, in terms of the arms trade was recorded by both Croats and Muslims, who mainly bought it from the West and the illegal market and, of course, armed their own militias.

Thus, when hostilities practically ceased after 1995, millions of weapons were found in the hands of gangs that put them on the “market”, or even citizens who hid them “for a time of need”, since there was no fear of a new round of ethnic conflicts. .

In the conditions of “peace” since then, complete “disarmament” – despite the pressure of the international community, who feared that a “bomb” would still remain in the foundations of a fragile peace – has not become possible in the countries of the post-Soviet space. war Yugoslavia. Large quantities had already been smuggled out, and the rest remained hidden in “chests” and basements of houses.

Almost everyone wanted to have weapons at home – the father of a student who killed classmates had five (!) – “because the neighbor also has one” and, of course, several mafiosi for “business reasons”.

As if the “faucets” of the former Yugoslavia were not enough, the 1997 tsunami in Albania “flooded” the arms market not only in the Balkans, but also in half of Europe.

Enver Hoxha, in his paranoia of the enemy environment, mass-produced in factories such as Berati and the Albanian north, a huge amount of weapons, explosives, which he stored in caches in the mountains and gorges, while teaching everyone – men and women – to use them.

But when the state collapsed under the weight of the pyramid scandal in March 1997, the Albanians ransacked the warehouses and seized about a million weapons of all calibers, few of which were later collected in an international persuasion campaign to prevent the flow out.

The vast majority were either caught up and diverted to the international market with a larger “client”, as it is called, thanks to easy transportation, Greece and its gangs, or remained in the possession of citizens who, in rare cases, as in the former Yugoslavia, use them to “permit” their differences or to kill innocent people, as in this case in Serbia.

The 19th-century Albanian leader Isa Boletini said that “an Albanian never parted with his weapons”, and it seems that this “culture” has not disappeared even today, judging by the widespread use of weapons in society.

In the former Yugoslavia, the brutality of the war and national hatred continue to make people suspicious and insecure, and they probably feel secure having one or more weapons in their home. What definitely wins is smuggling.

When asked why the state, political power does not eradicate this dangerous phenomenon, they usually coldly answer that they cannot do this, “because the very smuggling that profits from the sale of weapons has tightly engulfed their very structures.”