New York Times: Kosovo's partition idea turns old ghosts into Balkans

So says “York Times” in a recent article entitled “Talks on Kosovo's ethnic divisions revive old Balkan ghosts”.

The article begins to talk about Gracanica and its streets filled with monuments from soldiers along the streets filled with flowers. It rarely sees a Kosovo flag, but usually shows the colors of the flags of Albania and Serbia.

All roads in this small area, contested areas, remind drivers of how divided and confused ethnicities are in Kosovo, 10 years after declaring independence from Serbia, the northern neighbour.

There are now numerous talks to make these official divisions and formally divide Kosovo along ethnic lines. It is the idea of leaders of Kosovo and Serbia hoping to end the 20 years after the war and is a step towards integration into the European Union for both countries, writes “New York Times”, Time.net broadcasts.

To surprise the majority, US President Donald Trump's administration has signaled that it is open to this concept, even though a new border between two states, along ethnic lines would destroy American support policies for multiethnic Kosovo.

The idea of partitioning, coupled with words of exchange, can start ethnic tensions in a region where more than 100,000 people were killed in a series of wars and millions displaced in the 1990s.

This idea would turn the Balkans into a powder barrel”, Sava Janjiq, the Igumen of the Serbian Orthodox Church, has warned.

In Kosovo, according to “NYT”, a poor and criminal country, is nervous. In northern Kosovo, across the Iber River, several thousand Serbs supported by Belgrade are dominant ethnicities. Space functions as a state divided by the rest of Kosovo with its school system, civil servants and phone companies.

As for Serbia, Kosovo does not exist as a state, the prestigious newspaper recalls. The paper has also written that 70 thousand to 100,000 Serbs live among the majority of 1.8 million people.

The paper also mentioned monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church that exist in separate areas in Albanian cities. One of them is Janjiqi's home, which says it was the idea of America that, along with NATO, intervened to bring independent Kosovo” back to life.

Since the 1995 Dayton Agreement ended the three-year war in Bosnia, it has been a principle of the West not to draw borders on ethnic grounds in the Balkans. That is mentioned by Sava Janjiq, who says that the “values of Europe and the West are not based on ethnicity”.

“NYT” has also written that Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and Serbia's Aleksandar Vuciq are negotiating for more than a year for division and exchange of territories with Serbia that can take Kosovo's north in exchange for the Presevo Valley, according to people informed by Vuciqi.

The paper also mentioned the meeting of leaders at a panel in Austria, where both made it clear that they consider what they call border correction. It has also written about the response of Germany and the states of Europe that went against revising borders on ethnic grounds, considering that this results in destruction.

Even though the idea is being discussed at higher levels, there is no indication that an agreement is near.

“NYT” says Serbia appears to have the silent support of the US, which has greatly changed foreign policy, remembering John Bolton's statement, National Trump Security Adviser, that “if states are heard, we don't object to”.

The newspaper has also spoken with citizens living in spaces that may be affected by exchanges. One of them is Betim Hoxha, Albanian, who lives in Gracanica. They talked to him at a café where he stayed with Serbian friends. “There is no need for separation of state”, he said.

At another table of this cafe, a group of Serbian young people say that if the borders change, it should not be long before all Serbs leave their homes from the south of Ibri.

“Er powder in the air” has said it is observing Sava Janjiq, known as a major advocate of ethnicity as the centre of national identity.

Yajqi has also said the essence of problems in Kosovo is that there are two autocrat governments.

The paper has also written about Vuciki's visit to Kosovo and not allowing him to visit a Serb village in Drenica.

“Vuciciciciciciciciciti has sought to forge Kosovo's division as a victory by taking peace to win what Serbs failed to do at war”, writes “NYT”