A shameful recognition

After a long period of hesitation the Czech Republic has recognised Kosovo. Jiří Hanák says the situation reminds him of the Munich Agreement of 1938, under which the Western Powers ceded the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany. This move was perceived as an act of betrayal by Czechoslovakia at the time. "Great Britain and France faced the choice between shame and war in 1938. They chose shame, and on top of it got war. In the Kosovo problem, the West faced the choice between shame and peace in the Balkans. It chose shame, but there is unlikely to be peace in the region. ... When the Western powers amputated a piece of Czechoslovakia in 1938, thousands of Serbs volunteered to serve in the Czechoslovakian army. Prague could have remembered this, but in politics there is no gratitude."

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