Is NATO building military bases in Montenegro?

A camp of the Army of Montenegro is being constructed in Andrijevica, Montenegro, which has been announced to be built according to NATO standards. The stories about the NATO bases in Berane and Sinjajevina are completely fabricated.

An article about the alleged construction of NATO barracks in Montenegro was published on the Serbian-language website of the Russian state agency Sputnik on August 28 at 2:04 p.m.

Milacic reveals what is behind the construction of NATO barracks in Montenegro (video)

In a short article, Sputnik announces a video of the opposition party president “Prava Crna Gora”, Marko Milacic, and invites readers to watch “why such a NATO complex is in such a small place”.

The President of Prava Crna Gora, Marko Milacic, visited the place of Prljanija in the municipality of Andrijevica, where the construction of a NATO barrack is planned, in which 17 million euros will be invested.

See what lies behind that and why such a NATO complex is in such a small place.

The video attached to the article was published on the Facebook page Sputnik Srbija at 2:02 p.m.

The video was previously published on the Youtube channel “Marko Milacic” at 12:58, then on the Facebook page “Marko Milacic – Prava Crna Gora” at 13:07, and finally on the private profile “Marko Milacic” at 13:34.

In the video, Milacic did not say that NATO barracks were being built in Andrijevica, as stated by Sputnik, but “our, Montenegrin barracks according to NATO standards”. On the other hand, Milacic did say that a NATO military base was being built in Berane, and that NATO wanted to occupy “Sinjajevina, Andrijavica, Berane and the border”:

In this area, right here, on 5 hectares, the process of building NATO barracks is underway. So our Montenegrin barracks, but according to NATO standards. (…)

It is not by chance that such a base is being built here. This is not far from Murino – you know very well what happened in Murino in ‘99, so this territory is not insignificant to them [NATO mentor of this government]. When you add to this, the idea of ​​building such a barracks, and the desire to form a NATO military base at the airport in nearby Berane, so when we keep in mind that this is almost a border zone with Albania, then it is more than clear that NATO plans to set up here foundations of something that is a greater Albania. If they removed the army from the territory of our border in the length of 20 km, there are only a few border policemen there now; if they are building barracks here according to NATO standards, if they are building a NATO military base in Berane, what is it? What are they doing on the territory of our country, without the citizens of Andrijevica, Murino, Berane and the whole of Montenegro knowing almost nothing about it? And when they said so many times that they would build a NATO military base, when the citizens talked about it, maybe we thought it was something like large NATO military bases, but no. They are obviously making a NATO military base out of the entire territory of Montenegro, so they want to occupy Sinjajevina, so they want to occupy Andrijevica, so they want to occupy Berane, so they want to occupy our border. For the benefit of a greater Albania, not for the benefit of these citizens and these places.

After the Russian agency Sputnik gave Milacic media space, the agency Tanjug did the same. On August 28, at 5 pm, Tanjug published an article entitled:

Milacic: NATO is laying the foundations of “Greater Albania” in Montenegro

The difference between Sputnik’s and Tanjug’s articles is reflected primarily in their length. While Sputnik announced the video in only two sentences, Tanjug quoted and paraphrased the claims in a much longer article.

Marko Milacic’s claims were then reported by numerous regional media, most of them by taking over Tanjug’s article. Here are some of the titles of such articles:

“NATO lays the foundations of ‘Greater Albania’ in Montenegro”– (Politika, Glas Srpske, Nezavisna Srpska, Trebevic.net, Trebinje dana, Iskra, Srbin.info, Dnevnik.rs

Milacic reveals what is behind the construction of NATO barracks in Montenegro (video) – (B1 info, Vidovdan)

The articles state:

During his visit to Prljanija, Milacic warned that NATO obviously intends to turn the entire territory of Montenegro into its military base and to “occupy” Sinjajevina, Andrijevica, Berane and the Montenegrin border in favor of the so-called “Greater Albania”, and not for the benefit of the citizens of those municipalities and the state of Montenegro. (…)

In the video statement, submitted to Tanjug, he says that 17 million euros will be invested in the construction of the barracks, that an elite unit with 120 soldiers will be stationed there, covering the area of ​​five hectares, which, as he says, means that each soldier will have 170 meters square (…)

– This territory is not insignificant to them. When we add to this idea the construction of such barracks and the desire to form a NATO military base at the airport in nearby Berane, and when we keep in mind that this is almost a border zone with Albania, then it is more than clear that NATO plans to lay the foundations here for something that is “Greater Albania” – said Milacic.

What are the facts?

The story about the construction of NATO military bases in Montenegro has been going on for several years. Still, there is no evidence to confirm such information, and this was determined last year by our partner website from Montenegro, raskrinkavanje.me.

There is no announcement about the construction of NATO military bases in Montenegro by the government of this country, and the Ministry of Defense itself has repeatedly denied such allegations. Montenegrin Standard, among other things, wrote about it in the article titled “NATO base – The boogeyman with which the Russians scare Montenegro and the countries of the region”, published in April this year:

Almost as a rule, every few months, there are speculations from international or domestic political circles that NATO will build military bases in Montenegro and that our country will “lose its sovereignty” and be targeted by Russia, terrorists, and various other external sources and internal enemies. Stories about military bases as “boogeyman” which the citizens of Montenegro are afraid of, are mostly periodically placed from circles close to Moscow or even directly from the Kremlin, in delicate political moments in Montenegro.

In the video, Marko Milacic mentioned three locations – Andrijevica, which he said would receive a Montenegrin base according to NATO standards, Berane, which he said was “building a military base”, and Sinjajevina, which he said NATO wanted to occupy, but without mentioning the barracks or military base. But let’s start from the beginning.

Andrijevica

A military facility is being built in Andrijevica, more precisely, a barrack. However, it is not a NATO military base but a facility of the Army of Montenegro. Novosti, RTRS and some other media, which have now announced the construction of the “NATO base”, once wrote about the announcements of the construction of a military facility for the needs of the Army of Montenegro.

The Supreme Defense Council has made a decision to form an organizational unit of the Army of Montenegro in Andrijevica. It is an elite infantry unit whose formation must meet the prescribed NATO standards. It has been specified that the unit must be formed by 2020. Before that, after selecting the location, the construction of the necessary facility and all other accompanying facilities will begin. Those works should start in the coming months – the president of the municipality, Srdjan Masovic, reported to Novosti recently.

All the mentioned media, and many others, clearly wrote that it was a matter of building a military facility for the needs of the Army of Montenegro, which would be in accordance with NATO standards. And NATO standards are the reason why certain media describe this military facility as a NATO base. Therefore, a NATO base is not being built in Andrijevica, but a barrack of the Montenegrin Army according to NATO standards. In conclusion, Milacic himself said that the media misrepresented his words, calling the barracks “NATO barracks” and not barracks by NATO standards.

Berane

Back in 2017, the website Novosti wrote about the airport in Berane as a NATO base. On the website of the Government of Montenegro in July 2019, it was announced that “The Proposal of the Concession Act and the Concession Agreement for Airports of Montenegro” was adopted. On that occasion, the Montenegrin Vijesti stated in August 2018: “In the Concession Act for Airports of Montenegro, adopted by the Government, there is again a place for the airport in Berane, so the question is whether the airport is a development opportunity not only for the city, but for the entire north of Montenegro, again divided the public into those who consider it an “impossible mission”, and others who firmly believe that the time of the 60s and 70s of the last century can be repeated when it was possible to get from Berane by air and reach Podgorica, Belgrade or Zagreb.

Therefore, the airport in Berane will not be a NATO base, but it is planned to renovate this airport in the future and put it into the function of a civilian airport.

Sinjajevina

Although neither Milacic nor the media that reported his claims explicitly stated that a NATO base was planned to be built on Sinjajevina, the claim that NATO wants to “occupy” this place relies on such a story related to Sinjajevina.

Our partner website from Montenegro, Raskrinkavanje.me, also wrote about the story of the NATO base in Sinjajevina. The analysis states that in July 2018, the media published an article entitled “NATO base will be constructed on Sinjajevina”, referring to the Belgrade newspaper Politika. Politika states that the journalist visited Sinjajevina “after the Ministry of Defense of Montenegro announced that it would build a shooting range, a place for destruction of surplus weapons and a kind of NATO base on this mountain, near Sava’s lake”.

In May 2018, the Montenegrin Standard wrote that the Government of Montenegro had decided to form a training ground on Sinjajevina for the needs of the Army of Montenegro. According to Pobjeda, the idea is to build a training and shooting range similar to the one on Pasuljanske livade in Serbia, which is one of the best in the Western Balkans”. 

The Minister of Defense of Montenegro, Predrag Boskovic, explained in the Parliament in May last year, but also a few days after the article was published in Politika:

“The army should have a training ground somewhere in Montenegro where it can practice. A location on Sinjajevina has been singled out that can meet the needs. This location would be used exclusively for training the army, since there is no location that would be used for those purposes. The training ground will be used only for a few days when the local population does not stay in the surrounding katuns”, said Boskovic at the parliamentary session dedicated to parliamentary issues, stating that there are no plans to build NATO weapons destruction facilities in Montenegro.

Taking into account the incorrect claim that the NATO base is being built in Andrijevica, we rate Sputnik’s article as fake news, while the article that appeared on other websites is rated as a distribution of fake news.

Milacic said it was “our base according to NATO standards”, and not a NATO base, but this explanation was not conveyed in the articles. Therefore we rate those articles as manipulation of facts.

We rate the claim that the construction of the new barrack is connected with the creation of “Greater Albania” as biased reporting and conspiracy theory.

 

(Author: Emir Zulejhić, Raskrinkavanje.ba)