And Meta versus Thaci: Change of Borders Milosevic's Project

The Albanian president, in a speech at Germany's State Marshall Centre, went so far as Thaci's idea of border correction compared him to former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's ambition for ethnic states, which had caused tragedy and genocide in the spaces of the former Yugoslavia.

Meta in his speech said that if he continues to go further with this idea, which President Thaci is promoting, then it could be said that this is a chronice of a warned conflict.

There can be no more direct threat to our safety. If it goes even further, we can only predict that its consequences would be totally unpredictable. It could be seen as the chronicle of a foretold and warned” conflict, Meta said in his speech given in Germany, the state that has also been declared against the idea of changing borders.

Referring to the idea of redressing borders, Meta said the latest proposal for a new debate on what would constitute the final agreement on normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia is consuming a lot of energy for the wrong targets, writes the paper.net.

It neither consolidates nor reflects the region. The opening of such a debate at a time when red flag signals and warning flags have been raised by the US and the EU for the inclusion of third actors in the region makes it even more alarming.

We have seen that over the last few weeks, political rhetoric is developing in a harsh provocative language, reanimating the ossuary regime of genocide”.

“Allow me to be clear, seeking normalisation of relations through exchange of territories means destroying and wasting a two-decade security investment. Let us recall to our memory how political ambitions that tried to create homogenous ethnic states in the Balkans produced terrible human tragedies. Thousands of victims and missing persons, tens of thousands of people forcibly displaced were the alarming consequences of Milosevic's genocide. This terror led to the Western Alliance's first military engagement in its fifty-year history”, Meta said further.

On the other hand, he has said that NATO's decisive intervention in Kosovo created a new balance in relations between the Balkans and the West, meaning the US, NATO and the European Union.

“Since then, this region has been involved in their security ownership as the only antidote to enjoying lasting peace, security and stability. The European model of co-existence is the only condition as we qua (which is necessary) for the future of the Balkans and its European perspective. This model is at the heart of the Ahtisaari Package, the main pillar of the peace agreement between Kosovo and Serbia”.

“Kosovo adopted and included this package in its constitution and followed its envisioned path to independence, the International Court of Justice sealed the process with its legal decision, accepting Kosovo's declaration of independence and territorial integrity in full compliance with international law”, he said.

According to Albania's president, Kosovo is recognised and accepted by the majority of UN member states, including 23 EU members and all the countries in our region, except Serbia.

The goal of the EU-led dialogue was to bring the whole process to an end. Empowered by the European Union's values and principles, it facilitates normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, thus far by producing a package of 24 agreements approved by both countries. It would be beyond any reasonable logic that this dialogue is now producing a new agreement, changing borders along ethnic lines, going against a process that has lasted nearly two decades, as well as against the very concept and spirit of the European Union, as we know it. I fully understand the concern and difficulties of the same European voices, disappointed, in some way by the unresolved problems of borders between the EU countries and now, they claim and present resolution of any dispute as a strong condition before membership. But at the same time, I am opposed to any process, engagement, the project that, in the Balkan region, could clash with NATO and the European Union's investment on the issue of security, stability, peace and geopolitical”, the president declared firm.

He stressed that border issues are not just those of a street, or a tourist resort in the village, whose project needs only one computer, some geographical map lines, and some IT facilities.

Over a region where only 20 years ago, entire populations -- towns, villages, families, ethnicities and different beliefs -- fought and slaughtered for cities, villages and homes, exchanges of the project's borders became a special and very sensitive issue. This is an issue of the daily life of people and their history. It's about the past, the present and the future of these people. Border correction agreements are not a matter of drafting them; they are a matter of implementation. It is a matter of wisdom and maturity; it is a matter of co-operation and inclusion; it is a matter of stability, security and peaceful co-existence in our region”, Meta said.