Kurti wishes US independence, mentions the war in Ukraine: Putin is attacking democratic values

Kurti in a Facebook post has linked this happiness to the situation in Ukraine, saying Putin's “ocracy is attacking democratic values”.

If Russia were a real democracy, it would probably never invade Ukraine. And also, if Serbia were a real democracy, it would not pose such a serious threat to peace in our region. In this sense, President Biden's important efforts to promote democratic values worldwide can be understood simultaneously as attempts to preserve peace among the nations”, Kurti wrote.

The prime minister further added that we must pledge, that we will continue to do everything we can, at any cost, to ensure that Ukraine's democracy will prevail against Russia's autocratics.

Full Posting:

A hundred and sixty-one years ago, the eyes of the world were fixed on a nation, fighting for democracy. That nation was the United States of America, and that war was the American Civil War.

In a special message to Congress on July 4, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln, an excellent writer with a keen intuition of history, explained in clear terms the extraordinary implications of the war for the future of democratic government. The issue of war, Lincoln wrote, “raises the question of whether... a democracy... can, or cannot, maintain its territorial integrity against its inner enemies. It raises the question of whether disgruntled individuals, very few in number to control the administration... can always... destroy their government, and thus practically end their free governance on earth. It makes us ask: Is there a, in all republics, this natural and deadly defect? Should a government, of course, be either too harsh for the freedoms of its people or too soft to preserve its existence? ”

The war in Ukraine, which today is drawing the world's attention, is not, of course, a civil war: The threat to free government, in this case, comes not from within the country but from abroad. But, like the inadequate South American secession effort in 1861, the unjustified invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine in 2022 also carries extraordinary implications for the future of democratic government. To understand these implications, we must address a great scholar whose work Lincoln most likely read - German philosopher Immanuel Kant. It is a small wonder that Kanti, a man who never left the vicinity of his hometown, Königsberg, who today bears the name Kaliningrad, Russia, still deeply understood international relations. In his important essay of 1795, To Eternal Peace, Kanti presented his famous thesis, that democracies don't go to war with each other. This paper has proved itself extremely good over the last 227 years. As noted by famous American philosopher John Rawls, the “lack of war among major established democracies is as close as anything we know with a simple empirical order in relations between societies”

History has proved to us that autocratic rulers, who do not respond to anyone other than themselves, often use war as a means of personal cloning, territorial expansion, or financial profit. By contrast, accountability to the people causes democratic states in general to be not inclined to fight. If Russia were a real democracy, it would probably never invade Ukraine. And also, if Serbia were a real democracy, it would not pose such a serious threat to peace in our region. In this sense, President Biden's important efforts to promote democratic values worldwide can be understood simultaneously as efforts to maintain peace among nations.

However, it is precisely the unwillingness of the armed conflict on the part of democratic states in general, which drives autocrats like Putin, and Milosevic before him to think that attacks on smaller democratic nations will go unpunished. And that makes us ask: Should a government, necessarily, be either too autocratic to maintain peace with its neighbours, or too democratic to defend itself, and other democracies, from outside aggression?

This is the big challenge Russia's illegal war has posed to the democratic world. Ukraine, so far, has faithfully passed its test. Despite Putin's hope to promote a quick chapter on the part of Ukraine, Russia's blitzkrig has failed spectacularly. However, greater trials are coming - not only for Ukraine but also for Europe. Putin is preparing for a long-standing devastating war against Ukraine and is counting on a severe winter to cause maximum suffering to Russian-gas dependent European states. For these reasons, among other things, effective resistance to Putin's aggression will require more sacrifices than ever from world democracies.

This July 4th, when we are celebrating democracy, let us remember, together with Lincoln, that democracy does not defend itself; rather, we peoples of the democratic world must defend it. Let's pledge, then, that we will continue to do everything we can, at all costs, to ensure that Ukraine's democracy will prevail against Russia's autocratia. And, standing behind Ukraine and its citizens, let us witness to the whole world, the Democrats and the Democrats at the same time, our firm determination, that the rule of the people, the people and the people, will not disappear from the earth”.