Lutfiu: In Serbia, calls for Albanians to leave municipalities in Valley

Lutfiu, an interview for KosovoPress, hopes the Presevo Valley will be part of the talks and the final agreement between the two countries.

I want to remember that there have been also calls from activists, from politicians who are happening in the north, Serbia to manifest, to exercise on Albanians in the Presevo Valley. Even a statement by an activist there in Serbia has been to get Albanians out of the municipality of Bujanovac and Presevo as kind of reciprocity against what is happening. Although citizens of the Presevo Valley have been subject to election processes under Serbia's laws, completely democratic. But that is the form that Serbia, although we live in 2023, still lives and exercises the functions of past years”, he declares.

The chairman of the Albanian National Council stresses that Albanians in these three municipalities are concerned.

There are also citizens who are concerned because of these calls coming from different circles, from individuals in Serbia, in order to produce a destabilisation even in the Presevo Valley. This certainly is disturbing, and we constantly call for international presence in the Presevo Valley”, Lutfiu adds.

According to him, in three municipalities in eastern Kosovo there is a lack of perspective, a huge influx of migration, assimilation of addresses and non-recognition of diplomas.

Our ongoing “call is that in the final agreement, in the final talks between Kosovo and Serbia, the issue of Albanians in the Presevo Valley is certainly involved. Kosovo is the best example of how minorities are respected in a state. In the meantime, Albanians from the Presevo Valley are discriminated against only because of ethnic affiliation. It is the only case in Europe and very rare in the world, where the state discriminates against a minority solely because of ethnic affiliation”, the chairman of the Albanian National Council points out.

International demands for establishing the Association of Serb-run municipalities, Lutfiu considers them hyperbolised. It requires reciprocity for the rights of Albanians in the Valley, just like Serbs in Kosovo.

“Such an initiative has been held by leaders of the Presevo Valley, but has never been accepted by Serbia's leadership. What we're asking is that there always be a reciprocity of rights, like those rights that Serbs in Kosovo have, we have those rights in the Presevo Valley Albanians... As a simple citizen of the Presevo Valley, which is constantly discriminated against, I say Serbs in Kosovo enjoy rights perhaps that there is no other minority, anywhere in Europe. Such demands are hyperbolised and I believe this is not the best form to find a solution between Kosovo and Serbia”, he declares for Kosovas.

Weeks ago, the issue of the Presevo Valley in the U.S. Senate was first mentioned. The chairman of the National Council adds that, under the lobby campaign, the support of the Government of Kosovo will be discussed in Strasbourg as well.

“recently, even meetings, which will be held in Strasbourg, have been agreed. Even there we will meet Eurodeputettes, so we will discuss the situation of Albanians in the Presevo Valley... We will talk about the hate language used repeatedly in the Valley to the citizens of the Presevo Valley, to the racism that appears daily in Serbia, then we will certainly talk about the lack of perspective. Serbia has signed a plan, the so-called seven-point one aimed at integrating Albanians into state institutions, has never implemented that plan. Then, after seven years, we have started a redialog of that plan, but still it has not implemented it, and we will talk in numbers about how Albanians are discriminated against and not admitted to state institutions”, it concludes.

We remember that, in Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposaviq, Serbs are protesting the entry of new Albanian mayors into municipal facilities, as well as the presence of the Kosovo Police. The situation in these municipalities has been tense Friday 26 May, when sworn mayors have been forced to enter their working offices under police assistance.