Escobar made an offer, Kurt takes into account the American stance on Association

The association must be implemented, Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in a recent interview, where he indicated he accepts all provisions of the recent agreement with Serbia and demanded that all be implemented as soon as possible. The US seeks the establishment of association as a precondition to launch a global campaign for full international recognition of Kosovo this year, and Kurti mentions the American stance when showing what association should be.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti gave an interview to the Croatian newspaper Vecernji list, which he chose to publish fully in Albanian even in his Facebook account. In a conversation with journalist Hasan Haidar Diabbb, who said he has known Kurt for years, the chief of the Government of Kosovo spoke about relations with internationals, who he said are driving Serbia away with their approach.

“in the air conditioning office of Kosovo government Prime Minister Albin Kurti, feels a slight tension” wrote in the Croatian newspaper Diab when presenting the interview.

However, when he spoke about the issue of the Association of Serb majority municipalities, he cited the American government's stance on what this municipality should be like.

Kurti: Association must be implemented, Republika Srpska is not possible

Asked whether they are acceptable for all provisions of the agreement with Serbia finalised in Ohrid, Kurti said so: “Of course they are. I want the application of all those points, unconditionally, in full and as soon as we get to the”.

When the journalist mentions Article 7 concerning establishing the Association of Serb-run municipalities, and if that is acceptable to them, Kurti claims previous agreements are binding and that they must be fully implemented.

Article 7 speaks of the aloneing of the Serb community, which relates to Article 10, which says all previous agreements, which are valid and binding, must be implemented fully. We have 39 such agreements. Two refer to the association of Serb majority municipalities from 2013 and 2015”, Kurti said.

Kurti says she is ready for that “for the Serb community in Kosovo to be better organised to receive as many quality public services as possible and to respect all their rights”, citing Ahtisaari's plan, the failure to violate the Constitutional Court, and a letter of former EU top diplomat Federica Moghrini, which she had sent to former Prime Minister Isa Mustafa to ensure that the Association can have executive power or the third level of governance.

But at the same time we have the position of the American government, which is published in a text in which it says that association should be a co-ordination of existing competencies that have municipalities. For us, territorial ethnicity is absolutely unacceptable. This kind of nationalism is essential to chauvinism and apartheid, it is in opposition not only to civic society, but even to national-crimist nationalism”, Kurti said.

The prime minister said he has offered a <x0-draft vision to the Serb community in Kosovo, which is inspired by the Croatian self-advancing model through the Serbian National Council”. For him, Kurti said that “Vucciq did not want to hear about him or read him”.

“He wants the unification of Serb majority municipalities against our state, as was done in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1991. In Kosovo 4% of the population are Serbs. But they have 10 out of 38 municipalities, have 10 seats reserved from 120 in Parliament and have 17 percent of municipal assemblies in our municipalities. Also, the Serbian language is an official language throughout Kosovo at all levels of administration. It means, in Kosovo, there is positive discrimination, but Belgrade wants Republika Srpska within Kosovo. This, of course, is not possible. Not only is it not desirable but it is also not possible”, Kurti said.

He stressed that Belgrade wants to talk about reciprocity, because Serbia's “has more national minorities than in Kosovo”.

So if you want something for Serbs somewhere else, you should think about minorities in your country. At the Vranje hospital, which covers Presevo and Bujanovac, in the Pchinj district, there is no Albanian doctor, while at least one third of the patients are Albanian. In the Presevo Valley, in Bujanoc, Medvedja and Presevo, silent ethnic administrative cleansing is taking place by canceling the addresses of Albanian residents. If the police knock on your door and you're not there, they wipe you out of the register. They mean nobody lives here. In a way, to register there as residents, you have to be home the whole time”

US bid: Association in exchange for a global recognition campaign

Kosovo a week ago was the main issue of discussion at Capitol Hill, where the United States' special envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, reported before the US Congress on the situation in the Western Balkans.

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs said he is in constant contact with Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus, which have not yet recognised Kosovo's independence. Some of them, he said, cannot recognise “due to the lack of a bilateral agreement between Serbia and Kosovo”.

For the US to engage in a road that Escobar said leads Kosovo towards full international recognition, the implementation of the finalised agreement in Ohrid cited as a precondition.

The accord urges Serbia to recognise Kosovo's sovereignty and its territorial integrity. Turkey recognises national symbols, the flag, government documents, diplomas, car license plates and prohibits Serbia from blocking Kosovo's membership in international organisations. Kosovo is required to implement its mandate to form the Association of Serb-run municipalities. We believe that both countries should be engaged immediately in these aspects, without preconditions. They must start doing their part”, Escobar said.

This agreement, Escobar said it has offered the US “the greatest opportunity in the past 15 years” to co-operate with the Government of Kosovo to launch “not just a European recognition campaign, but a global recognition campaign”.

In the issue of implementing the agreement, Escobar described as the key “core” formation of the Association of Serb majority municipalities.

The “Association will empower municipalities with common interest, language and culture to co-ordinate common challenges in providing some public services, including education, health care and local economic development”, he said in Congress.

Most of the states with which Escobar said it is in constant contact, “would like to see Kosovo's readiness to fulfil its part of the agreement, which is the Association of Serb-run municipalities”.

This is one of the reasons why I've pushed the Government of Kosovo to move this thing forward with American support via a way for association not to jeopardise the constitution, or legal structure, so that we can launch this year's recognition campaign”, Escobar said.