Presevo Mayor: Today 100 years don't let go until we join Kosovo

Unfairly separated from Kosovo's territory -- Albanians of the Presevo Valley -- have a desire that never changes, joining Kosovo.

However, the leaders of the Valley do not accept any price for Kosovo to be divided so that their desire can be satisfied.

So stated in an interview for IndexOnline, Presevo Mayor Shqim Arifi.

He says that for the “today and 100 years, we do not let go of joining Kosovo”, he is not satisfied with the work done by Kosovo institutions for the Presevo Albanians.

Name Albania's former Foreign Minister, Gent Cakaj, saying he is most interested in Presevo Albanians, but emphasises that “with a flower does not bloom spring”.

These and recent developments in Presevo can be read below with Arifi:

IndexOnline: We're going through a tough year, Padremia Coddy-19 has detected in all forms of our lives. How was the year for the citizens of Presevo and for you as its leader?

Arifi pronunciation: This year has been a heavy year for citizens of the Presevo Valley, but not just for the entire globe, because it has affected us in the most vital but most sensitive spheres of life. It affects not only health but also the prospect of future life. It's also completely changed the perception of life, but also about the future. I was personally touched by the virus. I speak from my own experience. Also, I've had some of my family infected, it's had a profound effect, so I think every citizen in the world, but especially in the Presevo Valley is seriously affected. When I say in the Presevo Valley, it is marked by a very decadoor problem now, of the many challenges, unemployment and discrimination that are now becoming us for the last three decades, so the pandemic in us has an even more serious effect.

IndexOnline: How do you assess co-operation between Kosovo leaders and you as leaders of the Presevo Valley and are the two Albanian states doing enough for Albanians not only Presevo but the entire Valley?

Arifi pronunciation: Co-operation between Kosovo leaders and us is more subjective co-operation than concrete professionally speaking and real on the ground. In addition to the photos of recent decades, we already have another approach of Kosovo leaders, but also of leaders of Albania who are present with visits to our Presevo Valley or to our municipality, but with very few results with meetings and visits. I'm a little desperate that even for the year 2021, the National Solidarity Fund was not set up, which would then have been a mechanism that could have developed the vital spheres in our country. So far we've had only 3 investments from Kosovo, which are 50,000 euros in 2015, in our extra-special maternity maternity ward, $113,000 euros of Prime Minister Haradinaj in 2018, and then we have 500 grand of Prime Minister Albin Kurti's euros in this year we're leaving behind. And from Albania we have some mini-investment, which goes through 6 digits that I'm not satisfied with because I'm focusing more on Bujanovac than in Presevo, but I'm not satisfied because I expect the solidarity fund to have 5m euros rather than 10,000 projects.

So I have expressed that I am desperate to place Kosovo and Albania's national strategy on the Presevo Valley, but also on Montenegro, but also on Albanians in northern Macedonia, even though they have other status. We in Montenegro and Presevo have been bypassed for decades and this is to be desperate, there are times the initiative for the inclusion of the Valley and Montenegro in this national strategy, given that we have been competing as a joint list in these last elections, but also the successes Albanians have had in Montenegro. If you allow me to give a score of 1-10 for Kosovo and Albania are in 3rd.

IndexOnline: How do you view the role of Albanian Foreign Minister Gent Cakaj in relation to the Albanians of Presevo and Valley?

Arifi pronunciation: Gent Cakaj, is one of those actors who is now struggling with concrete steps, the national strategy for both the Presevo Valley and Montenegro, but with one flower the spring does not bloom, so we need a full commitment of the government and must be on high priority for prime ministers in Albania and Kosovo, and not only part of the agenda of foreign ministers.

IndexOnline: Have you ever asked that the issue of Albanians in the Presevo Valley be addressed in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue?

Arifi pronunciation: No, I didn't ask for it once, but I've always searched for it in all circumstances, both in those official political meetings and in the media. Now that three years I've been demanding that the Presevo Valley be involved in dialogue and this is a political consensus in the Presevo Valley, because only we can know what the needs of the Albanians in the Valley are and we can represent them and only then have full legitimacy of an agreement at the moment of arrival.

IndexOnline: What is the treatment of Albanians in Presevo from the Serbian state?

Arifi pronunciation: We are still treated in the same form as we were treated 20 years ago by the government of Serbia, it is a policy towards the Valley that enters the neglect terminology, which becomes deliberate, to our demands. We apart from the Albanian-language books and textbooks that we have achieved in 2020 cannot conclude in a very positive approach of the government, rather it is still negligent.

Results in 2020 with textbooks being supported by the Albanian government are not an achievement that should be proud of us either, but the Albanian government has been taken over that Serbia's government has been able to secure these in 30 years. The inclusion of Albanians in the state structure, starting with customs from the post, from paying the highway from the cadastre and others, is derogatory to us Albanians, since we are 90 per cent Albanians in the Presevo municipality and 90 per cent are employed by Serbs. We have some progress in the design campaign, we hold on through the Serbian government in tools from the European Union, because if it wasn't for that, we wouldn't get it.

There are still jams in the use of the national flag, deliberate neglect.

IndexOnline: Better as you are or join Kosovo?

Arifi pronunciation: That's not good. We mean we are aware that the 1072 referendum for a basis of political activity. We've lobbied and organized our UCMP's liberation fight just to be together with Kosovo, we don't let go of this, even if we reach agreement today 100 years we don't let go to join Kosovo. But we should always put this in and we have done it in contextal and wise circumstances, we've said it's not worth sharing, the theory of partitioning that Presevo is going with Kosovo, Bujanovac remains in Bujanovac, we don't even allow the exchange of territories, the north of Kosovo to go with Serbia, that Valley with its relatives, we don't want to harm Kosovo.

Either we go all together or we just don't have to hurt the Republic of Kosovo project. So association is a vital principle of Albanians in the Presevo Valley and does not change.

IndexOnline: Over the years the trend of the departure of Albanians from their country continues. What is your order to those who consider abandoning Presevo?

Arifi pronunciation: It is not only the trend of leaving the Presevo Albanians, it is the trend of leaving all countries in the region to flee to the diaspora, the European Union. I can't order Albanians not to leave, they're family planning, what I can do is do my job, create an economic perspective to build quality of life in the Presevo Valley. Téi asked for funds from Kosovo and Albania, to introduce internationals to politics making and helping the Republic of Serbia realise our rights to develop the economy to raise salaries. That's all we can do.

IndexOnline: A message to all Albanians on the eve of the holiday season?

Arifi pronunciation: My message is I wish you a new year to all Albanians around the world with the loss of global pandemic and through health insurance in our family and through it love and respect for each other and through which I bring problems to each other and misunderstandings to each other, from the political spectrum to the family. A. Sahiti