Hoxhaj: Serbia wanted to annex the north as Russia did with Crime, “diplomatic war” has turned it into military option

Former Kosovo diplomat Enver Hoxhaj has said the September 24th terrorist attack has been aimed at annexing the northern part as it did the Crimea in 2014 from Russia.

This liaison, Hoxhaj, does so with the fact that in February and March 2014, Russia invaded and then annexed the Crimea Peninsula, taking it from Ukraine. This event took place after the Dinjisia Revolution and is part of the vastest Russian-Ukrainian war.

In an interview for Online Economy, Hoxhaj has said this situation has been averted thanks to the victory of the Kosovo Police, but that does not rule out the possibility of this repeating itself. The criticism also concerns the European Union for Serbia's amnesty for the terrorist attack.

According to Hoxhaj, along with the “diplomatic struggle Serbia uses against Kosovo, it also has the military option in mind, as recent actions are viewed as well planned and with clear political intentions.

“There is no doubt that it was an act of planned aggression of the Serbian state and with clear political intentions, since these people are common criminals and in the past were smuggled but their purpose and agenda has been political, it has been an annexing the northern part of Kosovo, in a similar way like the Crimea in March 2014 or Donbas two years ago, and their goal has been to overturn the constitutional order, to annex this part of Kosovo territory, to create new facts on the ground and to advance Kosovo's facts and to carry out close police co-operation with international partners. We have a situation that has avoided this first danger, but there is no exception for such a possibility in the future, since if someone has thought that from 99 to 2023, only diplomatic war is the platform of how Serbia hits Kosovo, September 24th has shown that the military option is the option that Serbia has on the table, head and action in the north of the country, Hoxhaj said.

Hoxhaj considers that Kosovo remains at war target “Serbianhibide”, while stressing that Serbia is able to live up to its political expectations. Hoxhaj has called for NATO membership before Kosovo's membership in the European Union.

I think the act of aggression is just a dimension of hybrid warfare. Hybrid warfare has different dimensions. It is a diplomatic struggle, it is a struggle to block institutions like the withdrawal of the Serb community, police officers, judges and Serb mayors last year, deinformation, mismanagement and now the military option. So hybrid warfare means multiple methods and forms of how a country achieves its goal”.

“I have said earlier that Kosovo is the high target of the Serbian hybrid war and not only, and that what happened on September 24th, shows that Serbia militarily thinks that it can live its political expectations in Kosovo, and I think that this is a turning point where Kosovo's policy should fully understand Kosovo's report with Serbia, see the situation in the north of the country very differently and have the political clarity of how to conduct. For me personally, security should be the priority before normalising reports with Serbia, and prior to dialogue and Kosovo's NATO membership should be the priority before Kosovo's membership in the European Union”, Hoxhaj has declared.

“I think what colleagues in Government have done to expose Serbia and strip it off of the act of aggression, with all that weapons and with all those recordings and all the potential that Serbia has done, I think it has been a good right job but the fact that the state of Kosovo is taking a lot of time with press conferences and high interviews, this is public diplomacy to gain the minds and hearts of Western public opinion”, as Hoxhaj said, as he expresses concern for the lack of visits to institutional leaders in Western countries. The visit says there are not even of the states that have supported Kosovo.

Hoxhaj has been pointing to criticism even the European Union for, as Serbia's amnesty says, following the terrorist act in Banjska.

“I see no one's visits to Washington, London, Berlin by the Government of Kosovo, and I see no delegations from the QUINT states that have supported Kosovo historically, following an act of aggression to come and visit Kosovo and show that we are close to Kosovo and interested in coming out with a political solution, and it is Serbia's attempt to flee sanctions and it is the European Union's attempt to arrest Serbia and I think it is the last time for the Government of Kosovo not only to shout at Pristina but to make concrete actions towards the Western Serbia, Hoxhaj.