Tahiri: Presevo Valley Do Not Remain the Valley of Depression

Justice Minister Abelard Tahiri has today met with National Council of Albanians in Presevo Valley Chairman Ragmi Mustafa.

As it becomes known in the media announcement, Minister Tahiri at this meeting has said Kosovo authorities will see that the Presevo Valley does not remain the valley of despair or dispopulation.

The Presevo Valley cannot remain the valley of despair, nor of dispopulation. It needs our support and our sensitivity on the international level for the unilateral restrictions that Serbian power places on this area”, Tahiri has said, among other things.

He has also said Albanians in the Presevo Valley continue to be the most discriminated against in Southeast Europe, and that according to him, all this discrimination is due to their ethnicity.

Minister Tahiri's full statement:

The Republic of Kosovo and its institutions must have a literal and systematic agenda addressing the affairs of the Albanian people in the Presevo Valley, so that the Albanian community living in that part can regenerate even in the socio-economic plan and in that socio-political and cultural environment.

Due to ethnic composition, the Presevo Valley continues to remain one of the most discriminated regions in Southeast Europe, as a result of Serbia's degrading policy, and this cannot be tolerated within a country that aspires to the European Union.

At a warm meeting with Albanian National Council Chairman Mr. Ragmi Mustafa, jointly shared the prospect of further steps that we need to precede, thus achieving concrete results and a much more powerful link between our institutions and the citizens living in that part.

The Presevo Valley cannot remain the valley of despair or depopulation. It needs our support and our sensitivity on the international level for the unilateral restrictions Serbian power imposes on this area.

The valley needs investment and education. We have a duty to stimulate economic and social development and to cultivate more powerful cultural ties.

The Republic of Kosovo aspires to sound relations with neighbouring countries, and the treatment of the Albanian population within these countries, is the most essential chapter to define these relations.