Tony Blair arrived in Kosovo on Monday for the 25th anniversary of the end of the war (Picture: Presidency of the Republic of Kosovo)
Pictured from left to right – Tonibler, Tonibler, Tony Blair, Kosovo’s president Vjosa Osmani, Tonibler, Tonibler and Tonibler.
‘Tonibler’ may be an unusual name – sometimes sneered at by Westerners – but it is given in honour of the former British prime minister for his intervention during the Nato bombing campaign in 1999 that halted the advances of Serbian soldiers in the Balkan nation.
History is yet to be kind to the former Labour leader for invading Iraq on the false premises that Saddam Hussein’s regime had weapons of mass destruction.
But in Kosovo he is viewed as a liberator, and a street and newborns are named after him.
Red carpets were rolled out for the politician on Monday as he arrived in Priština to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of the war in Kosovo.
As prime minister of Britain, he was one of the most vocal supporters of the Nato intervention in Kosovo.
The politician addressing a crowd of ethnic Albanians in the Kosovo capital Pristina (Picture: Reuters)
The country finally declared independence in 2008 – despite Serbia’s protests. 115 states have since recognised it, but Serbia is still not one of them.
Only a few dozen people actually carry the name ‘Tonibler’, but it is a sign that the horrors of the war have never left Kosovars.
Dr Aidan Hehir, reader in International Relations at the University of Westminster, compared this to how children in the UK were named after Winston Churchill after the end of World War II.
He told Metro.co.uk that the Western focus on the name can sometimes be ‘quite patronising’.
‘Sometimes UK journalists portray this as though the people in Kosovo are simple, you know “Isn’t this embarrassing that they have named their children after Tony Blair”,’ he said.
An explosion followed by a huge fire in Pristina on March 30, 1999 (Picture: Reuters)
‘The vas majority of Kosovars did not do that, but you can also understand why it was done. It was not that they just really liked a foreign politician. He was a man who was instrumental in saving their lives, so I think we should be respectful.
‘It is unfair and it does not tell the whole story. To understand why parents named their children “Toniblair”, you have to understand how awful it was during the war.
‘Not just in the summer of 1999, but the decades preceding it. Kosovars had been oppressed by the Serbs and violently put down by Slobodan Milošević. And then in 1999, Nato came to free them.
‘So the fact that people have chosen to respond to this by naming a small number of children “Toniblair” is acceptable really.’
More than 13,000 people were killed in the bloodshed, the vast majority Kosovo Albanians, marking the final chapter of Yugoslavia’s collapse.
What led to the war in Kosovo?
Smoke rising over a Belgrade thermal plant on the edge of the central residential district after NATO missiles pounded it early April 3, 1999 (Picture: Reuters)
Tensions between Serbs (minority) and Albanians (majority) in Kosovo have historical roots, only exacerbated by the end of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of nationalism in the Balkans.
After World War II, Kosovo was given the status of an autonomous province of Serbia in the Republic of Yugoslavia.
Under the dictatorship of Josip Broz Tito, there was relative peace, until his death in 1980, which led to the rise of ethnic tensions.
Amid the rise of nationalism that followed, Yugoslavia began to disintegrate and Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia all declared independence.
Slobodan Milošević – who later became the first sitting head of state charged with war crimes – rose to power in Serbia, promoting Serbian nationalism and centralising control, including over Kosovo.
This all escalated in a large-scale conflict, fought between Serbian forces and the Kosovo Albanian separatist militia known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
The war ended when Nato intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999, lasting a total of 78 days, which resulted in forces withdrawing from Kosovo.
Multiple massacres were committed against ethnic Albanians, mostly boys and men, drawing international condemnation.
Adding to the widespread human right violations, Serbian forces deployed sexual violence as a weapon of war.
According to the latest statistics, as many as 20,000 ethnic Albanian women were raped.
By the end of the conflict, nearly 90% of Kosovo’s Albanian population had been displaced – some fleeing to neighbouring countries like Albania and Macedonia.
These are just figures, which cannot fully capture the suffering endured by people during the Kosovo War.
Sir Tony visiting refugees in a camp in Macedonia (Picture: Shutterstock)
Several Serbian leaders were prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide related to the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
Milošević also faced charges, although he died from a heart attack before his trial was conclude.
Dr Hehir said: ‘I do not know how I would respond if a foreign politician had saved me and my family. I think I would be fairly grateful as well. People are not blinded by adoration of these figures.’
Relations between Kosovo and Serbia have not improved ever since, despite Nato intervention.
It is an overlooked conflict zone in the Balkans, which has been at a tipping point in the last year, particularly with Western attention on Russia’s invasion in Ukraine.
A mural depicts Russian president Vladimir Putin alongside former US president Donald Trump on March 30, 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia. The text reads ‘Kosovo is Serbia’ (Picture: Getty Images)
In February 2023, a path to normalisation was agreed upon by both countries, but whatever progress there was was trampled on after a deadly shootout in northern Kosovo between ethnic Serbs and Kosovo police.
Dr Hehir said: ‘Serbia has become more and more authoritarian, more nationalistic and more aggressive regionally.
‘There are all these foolhardy attempts to bring it closer to the West but they are backfiring spectacularly every day.
‘The primary threat in the Balkans is from Serbian nationalism, which is on the rise and is facilitated by the West.
‘Unfortunately, if things keep going the way they are, I can see a war breaking out again in the next few years.’
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