Albin Kurti: For Kosovo, association of Serbian municipalities is unacceptable

The chairman of the Vetevendosje movement, Albin Kurti, said on Monday that American President Joe Biden is familiar with the history of Kosovo and the Western Balkans and to solve problems in the region, this is very important.

I know in politics, finances are very important, but history is also. I'm afraid the previous administration was given more financial weight than history”, he said, stressing that in debates with the former American envoy for Kosovo-Serbia talks, Richard Green, it was difficult since, as he said, “was very hasty and very focused on financial issues”, Kurtine said a conversation with the <x4Woodrow centre Wilson”

He demonstrated confidence that with President Beden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be different.

Kurti said that when it comes to agreeing to September 4th of last year for economic normalisation between Kosovo and Serbia at the White House, “I like to read it from the end of”.

The bottom of the agreement text... is the recognition of Kosovo by Israel. And this is the part I like most in it and it's the last point, so I read it from the end of”, said Mr. Kurti, stressing the importance of co-operation between the United States and the European Union around the Western Balkans.

Kurti said containing a Kosovo-Serbia agreement is more important than the deadline or speed it achieves.

We should not have talks that include maps with this old idea of exchange of territories... We need to talk about people, citizens and communities as main beneficiaries and not politicians whose faces are supposed to be saved”, said Mr. Kurti, underlining that “should not have conversations with maps and not maps with surrounding presidents, because, of course, maps will continue to exist, but should be with their demarcation experts around”.

He said normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia should become simultaneously the normalisation of both countries within them.

Unfortunately, the government and the president of Serbia have focused very much on what Serbia has lost with Kosovo independence. I am very willing to engage in negotiations on what citizens have lost and not what Serbia ruled by (Slodan) Milosevic, who carried out ethnic cleansing and genocide in the spring of 1999”.

Kosovo was not their first. The way they seek to compensate through the Association of Serb majority municipalities, something that looks like Republika Srpska in Bosnia, is unacceptable”.

He said that anyone who requires compensation thus identifies himself or unconsciously with the Milosevic regime.

Kurti said the European Union has largely left the region, especially Kosovo, which is not even involved in the visa-free travel regime.

Stressing that the fate of the region is in the EU, he reiterated his idea that the European Union would have to organise a “Mini Marshall Plan” for the six Western Balkan states, according to the model of the post-World War II American fund, to help restore European states.

Mr. Kurti said he is optimistic that if Kosovo and Serbia engage seriously and sincerely in the talks, agreement can be reached, while he said it is difficult to predict Kosovo's membership in the United Nations due to Russia and China's stance. He said his idea of the mini Marshall plan is also aimed at protecting the Western Balkans from Russia.

Kurti, former Kosovo prime minister, is currently the candidate of the Vetevendosje movement for the post. But his party's list of early parliamentary elections on February 14th has not been certified, since it does not have persons convicted in the last three years.

This criterion was established following the Constitutional Court's act on the validity of the government's outgoing vote. The arguments over the candidacy have been focused mainly on Mr. Kurti, after the Court of Appeals confirmed a January month ruling that year, condemning Kurti and three deputies of the Vetevendosje movement for dropping tear gas in the Kosovo Parliament.

“Pat a paragraph, (in the Constitutional Court) which I believe was a unilateral interpretation, as something to do with me and some other deputies who have been convicted in the last three years and the Central Election Commission, led by Mrs. Valdete Daka, decided not to certified our list. Now we've complained to the first degree. The second level will be the Supreme Court and we hope for a positive result. In essence, the tendency is not to allow five out of 110 to be certified. Right now they haven't accepted our entire list, but I think this is going to be resolved within a week”, Kurti said. ( VoA)