Eset Berisha accuses Hakki Abazin of lying reports of his dismissal, warns indictment

The government said Berisha was dismissed for “due to violations of his professional duties”. But he denied this, saying he was dismissed for political reasons.

A week after the dismissal, during an interview with Reporter.net, Berisha has spoken about the background of his dismissal, accusing Deputy Prime Minister Haki Abazi of preparing a false report containing concealed documents.

Berisha shows there have been two meetings with Abbas, where one of them has tendered his resignation but who, according to him, Kurti's deputy refused.

While for incumbent Prime Minister Albin Kurti, the fired director says he has not met him, even though he has been aiming to do so, while warning him he will be seen in court.

Mr. Berisha was written days ago by the Government for what it said about “due to professional duty violations”. While signing for the Kosovo-Serbia airline, have you thought you could download?

Berisha: The violations are only a pretext to justify the decision, and the political goal with that decision. A decision containing reasoning, in the form of the download proposal, drafted by Deputy Prime Minister Haki Abazi, on 14 pages with unconfirmed claims, false statements, concealing documents and finally unilateral and wrong findings.

The signing of the letter of interest for the Kosovo-Serbia airline, I have made it in the name of AAC and the Minister of Infrastructure as authorisation, due to the competencies shared between the AAC and the Ministry of Infrastructure in aviation, and with the consent of the prime minister and the president. I didn't believe that someone would be able to get rid of this agreement and that in the absence of the courage to cancel this agreement, or withdraw the signature, I will find other excuses to fire me, only to achieve the political goal.

How do you see the Government's reasoning about your dismissal? What do you think is the real reason you got fired?

Berisha: Reasoning the verdict is in the form of the proposal, so it contains no evidence confirmed by any organ or court, but only by Deputy Prime Minister Abazi. And in the absence of legal reasoning, it comes in terms of political reasoning, which is the state official's crackdown because of the signing of the agreement, due to a failure to cancel or withdraw signing from that agreement.

You've recently stated through a post that Kurt has had enough of signing the deal in question. Why would you be kidding me?

Berisha: Kurt I announced on his first day as prime minister, February 4, 2020, with Minister Abdixhiku. I have both sent a written report with all the information about the meeting in Berlin, the negotiation process, and the result achieved. Hence, the delay in his announcement does not stand. But, I can't take responsibility for why I haven't informed Kurt when the agreement was signed on January 20th, because at that time he wasn't prime minister, and I couldn't prejudge the outcome of negotiations on forming his government.

The government says you have “risked sending it to arbitration”. Explain to our readers what he's all about?

Berisha: It's about Limak's claims, which is in management of the airport “Adem Jashari” under the concessional contract, which has complained about the failure to approve the land service provider for the long term. And this approval. The AAC had conditioned it with the company of operations to open the land services market - companies that provide passenger services (bags and checks), goods, mails, and aircraft services (cleanage, fuel supply, oil, etc).

The concessional contract has forced Limak to offer these services itself, or through someone else, but it has not given him exclusiveity. Because by EU rules, applicable to Kosovo through civil aviation law, market opening for these services is required, the moment 2 million travellers per year are reached, this figure is passed in 2018.

After this moment, and according to these regulations, it requires the commitment of at least two companies to each category of services on earth. The Limak company has only had to provide infrastructure, that is, working environments, keys to the network of municipal services and determine the price for infrastructure use. The centralised infrastructure division was also binding under the concession agreement.

Therefore, Limak's claims of arbitration processes are inconsistent, because they were not granted approval, but were only conditioned with the law enforcement and concessional contract.

Since Kurti got the prime minister's position have you had a meeting with him?

Berisha: No, I haven't had an appointment, although in my reports I have expressed readiness to announce it personally, but he never invited me.

If not with Kurt, did you meet any of his subordinates, or did you at least have a call with one of the officials in power after the agreement was signed?

Berisha: I met twice with Deputy Prime Minister Abazi in February. I've been trying to explain the legal context of the functioning of civil aviation in Kosovo since 1999, problems in air space management, but I didn't think he understood me.
So I became convinced, after informing him that the code for the airport, "Adem Jashariʹ, is a temporary code of UNMIK, which Iceland had provided in 2004, while Deputy Prime Minister Abazi demanded that Kosovo have its airport code, not knowing that these codes are issued to the ICO (the international civil aviation organisation), while membership in it is almost impossible without the UN flag.

At the next meeting, requested by me, I announced that AAC's restructuring as a consequence of law enforcement, informed him of the process of approval of field service companies in Aeroport, recordable issues, actions to normalise airspace, and finally offered my resignation for two reasons; because I considered the new government may need their reliable people to implement the new government's programme and because of the air space normalisation process, led by the AAC, which is impossible without government support. But Deputy Prime Minister Abazi told me that they are not interested in changes in areas where the expert is deficit, such as civil aviation, and assured me that he would carefully examine all issues raised in the function of combating crime and corruption and implementing the laws in force.

Will you complain about your dismissal?

Berisha: Of course, he will use all legal means to combat illegal dismissal, with violation of guaranteed rights with Constitutions and laws in effect, whose violation is also sanctioned by the Criminal Code.

Finally, what message do you have for incumbent Kurti?

Berisha: Two messages, Prime Minister, if you're against the Berlin Agreement, why aren't you canceling it? And the other, prime minister, no one is above the law, not even the highest state figures. See you in court.