Edita Tahiri against Thaci's ideas of border correction

The former minister responsible for the dialogue of the Republic of Kosovo, Edita Tahiri, has also emerged against the idea of exchanging territories. Tahiri São has named Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, but ideas he is promoting for exchange of territories and border corrections she has called incited by Serbia. Touching borders, according to Tahirt, leads to war.

Kosovo is entering the final phase of dialogue with Serbia, with European Union mediation and US support. What is expected of the final phase?

Edita Tahiri: Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia as two independent states has already been developing 6-7 years, and now we are entering the final phase of EU-brokered dialogue and with US support, expectations and the final result of this dialogue should be to bring lasting peace and stability to the Balkans and between the two states, and that can only happen with mutual recognition between the two states and that Serbia for different countries in the region has not yet made it. Serbia is still in its delays to understand the reality that Yugoslavia, the former state where Kosovo was one of the federal entities, as have become a state of Slovenia, Croatia and other countries, so we are dealing with a problem of Serbia's political thought, which, instead of accepting the new realities, to recognise the state of Kosovo, still continues with a destructive approach.

What are these voices talking about exchange of territories, or the northern division of Kosovo?

Edita Tahiri: As we get closer to final dialogue, Serbia comes up with dangerous scenarios and these are exactly scenarios of the possibility of partitioning Kosovo or of exchanging territories, and these all have to do with Serbia's ambition, which and today aims at creating Greater Serbia at the expense of other states, in this case at the expense of Kosovo and the Albanian nation, and are also driven by Russian geopolitical agendas. Despite Serbia's dangerous scenarios, Kosovo is committed and in the dialogue it will defend sovereignty, territorial integrity and any final agreement that can emerge from the Brussels dialogue should be and be in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo.

Are Serbia-led and Kosovo responses? What is the message from the international factor?

Edita Tahiri: These are driven by Serbia, but I am convinced they are also supported by Russia, which has a restoration of geopolitical ambitions towards the Balkans. But a message that should be sent to the international factor is that touching Kosovo's borders leads to war, because the Balkans is known to do no border touch or border change in other forms and second that in the case of Kosovo we cannot talk only about the state of Kosovo, but we should also see the Albanian nation, if borders are affected in the Balkans, they should be affected for the entire Balkans, and with this case all Albanians would also be open to negotiate, but affecting borders would create a domino effect with destabilising effects until the possibility of war between Kosovo and Serbia. Which can only be averted if Serbia removes the hegemony and colonial appetite, because the north of Kosovo is the richest part of Kosovo with minerals, water, which are strategic things and that a hundred years of Kosovo has been occupied and colonised by Serbs, Yugoslavia, only to have had rich land. We are at a very dangerous time and I believe that the International Community, the European Union and the US should think well that this new map that was created after the end of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and that these six states, including Kosovo, are moving towards European and Euro-Atlantic integrations. Now is the time for Serbia to stumble once again in its dangerous scenarios for instability not only of Kosovo, but also of the entire region.

When you think this process will be completed and from the very controversial Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, what has been achieved so far?

Edita Tahiri: The whole dialogue from 2011 since it started has had clear intentions, the main ones have been the first Serbia to halt interventions in Kosovo, and this dialogue has enabled the deterioration of the parallel structures of Serbia, especially in the northern part of Kosovo, to enable Kosovo to turn state sovereignty into the northern part of the country, has enabled us to integrate this part of Serbs, of the Serb minority living in the northern part, these have been the major results that it has and this dialogue, and now when Kosovo has rounded up a process of sovereignty in the northern part of Serbia, which it wants the results of the northern dialogue, and the results of the region, as long as it is supposed to be, the early ethnic borders of the Balkans, we have no way to protect them, but that we have a way of defending them in a way that we can always protect them.

You mean that Kosovo's borders are an open issue. Then how can the border problem be solved by you?

Edita Tahiri: In this case it will be diplomatic war, but Serbian-Russian scenarios we need to see with the context of building continuous instructions. I believe that for Serbia, the best now would be to concentrate, to think of the responsibilities it has because Serbia has committed genocide in Kosovo and after every genocide, the state that has committed genocide has to find ways of apologizing, to be willing to accept reality and guarantee that it will no longer act in a destructive manner like Serbia did in all the region, except that Serbia has been thinking in this direction, continues to seek to damage the land of Kosovo, not to say that the Albanian lands of today will not end the borders of Kosovo because we have been in Serbia, as long as we have in Serbia, as long as we have been in Nis. What this dialogue has to draw is mutual recognition between the two states and it has to bring forth the principle that what applies to the Serb minority in Kosovo should also be useful to the Albanians of the Presives in Serbia.

If Serbia continues with its rhetoric of the past, does it mean that Kosovo will continue to be able to stabilise stability?

Edita Tahiri: The first in Kosovo has not been able to build a consensus in the sense of forming the delegation, but even around the platform has not yet been built consensus. These are the processes that await Kosovo because the delegation that will represent it must receive authorisation from the Kosovo Assembly, while the platform must be approved in the Kosovo Assembly. On the other side of Serbia, even though from time to time in their rhetoric, we still have this retort to confront the past and take responsibility for the war they fought in Kosovo, we still have this rhetoric to return to dangerous scenarios. The principle is if there is a process that brings lasting peace and stability to the region, then the EU and the U.S. should make it clear that the stability of peace is done only by knowing the reality, just by seeing that the aggressor has known responsibility and knows the state he was born. Dialogue ... between Kosovo and Serbia is linked to European integration, because good neighbourlyity is one of the main criteria and thanks to this dialogue Kosovo has benefited from integration because it has signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU showing readiness for good figs and reforming the state, and this has made the five countries of EU recognition fail to maintain the European integration path of Kosovo and Serbia has made dialogue because it has made advancements on the path to European integration.

Edita Tahiri interview, former minister responsible for dialogue of the Republic of Kosovo given RTSH's