Three Considerations in One Day

Next week Albania will head the Security Council, just as the whole world meets at the United Nations Assembly in New York. This is a historic moment in Albania's international relations, which says much about climbing our state to a new level. There are many reasons to be proud of Albania today, but most of them are far more motivations to see how much Albania can still do and to walk straight to the new top where we should go as a country and as a people and in no way cause for complacency. But one of the motives that should make us proud and inspire us in thinking of our modern national and political action is the fact that although in the Western Balkans Albanians are extended to several states, in considerable numbers it should say, Albania is a particular example of not abusing its ethnic communities present in other countries. We never promote ethnic unrest in neighbouring states, nor among neighbouring countries, by touching feelings that can fuel opposition and spark conflicts in this neighborhood of Europe, where we are all doomed to live together in life and forced to do our best to leave our children a space of understanding, tolerance, peace.

For us in Tirana, ethnic communities scattered throughout the Western Balkans are a bridge of friendship and co-operation, just as against Albanians deployed in many countries are hosters of a peaceful future with all, not the fitilas to be lit in the name of reasons for the past, with which short-term policies are commonly fed here.

There is no doubt that some circlers, but even some of our international allies and partners, sometimes take it for granted, well-being, and for this almost insignificant reason, our exclusive approach to building and fostering friendly relations with all. Not that it makes us doubt our approach, which is an approach as fundamentally valid as it is, for a European community like ours in Albania, but in some cases or at present it should remind everyone that we give faith, respect, friendship, but no one should ever take us for blindness, deaf or mute. We welcome criticism and help to be improved by everyone, but co-existence lessons and respect for other ethnicities to Albania cannot be given.

The parliamentary majority and the government that I am leading have come up with a firm support for such a deep and deeply European reform of the justice system that today, for the first time in the history of its state, Albania is drawing its head towards the remaining 100-year-old systemic impunity water. The investigation and independent prosecution of a series of senior officials linked to the current political power, including one of my former deputy prime ministers, are stubborn evidence of an age-old change in our country's life. Many said it would never happen in Albania to touch the rulings, but it is now clear that it is happening. Others said the government would always control the new justice organs, but that is already not happening.

Some are saying that when it comes to some very hot potato in the hands of justice, like Mr. Beler's, I have to step in and throw the potato into the sea, but that's never gonna happen. And I'm just going to repeat myself to bother many, that fighting corruption and organised crime will only deepen, despite pain and cost, because this war is right and necessary for European Albania of all the children of this country. Unfortunately, the shadow of the stereotype that corruption is the way of life in the Balkans and that all are the same, so all should be pointed at the finger, whatever they do to prove otherwise, extends up to the rooftops of Western capital offices. The lack of successes in investigations, prosecutions and high-level corruption judgments are avaz that is repeated each year from the four Western Balkan sides as a whole and Albania. Spectacular reports from the previous year have become important fashions and institutions or large-named organisations, reprint them with someone new that is as old as the former, based on polls and perceptions that gather under the shadow of that stereotype. But fortunately, we know better than anyone that even how many things have changed, how many things need to be changed even if there is a country in this region that deserves much more respect, even encouraging praise for the facts related to this war, this country is Albania. However, all should know that even though some good and well - deserved words would be a sign of respect, repetition of the same avaz does not bother us at all, because we are not making this war for Brussels, not Berlin or Washington, but for today's children of tomorrow's Albania.

Today, the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia will meet in Brussels, and I, as always, pray that it is not another empty lap, for another repeat of the song <x0phaj has the other”. Despite our close ties and the unique relationship perhaps in the world with Kosovo, like the other Albanian state at the border with Albania, we have been, we are, and will be fully matched to the line of efforts of the United States and the European Union, to realise the normalisation plan of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Not because our great strategic aletats are always, necessarily, right, but because until now they have never been wrong in their application to the two countries, and finally Kosovo, especially.

This June, during the peak of tensions in northern Kosovo municipalities, with regret, we unilaterally cancelled the joint meeting of the two governments with Kosovo, which was long planned.

A hundred times to go back a hundred times we would cancel, because first, Albania is a responsible member of the Euro-Atlantic community even when it has to be positioned in relation to its own mistakes, and no longer when it should be positioned in relation to Kosovo's mistakes or then with those of others.

And secondly, because it was the wrong time to throw a double sword dance in Prizren, in the meantime when Kosovo should be on the future side, side by side with its strategic allies, not on the side of the past, where toxic theories of Albanian conspiracy are fed.

Then, aware that it was an unusual movement, I presented to our strategic allies Albania's contribution in ongoing discussions about the creation of the Serb majority municipalities, because I fully agree with them about the need for rigorous implementation of all that the state of Kosovo has pledged. Governments live, but serious states do not put into their international pledges as governments do.

But I have to re-emphasize, rather than the higher doesn't mean that Albania views Kosovo as the only one responsible for introducing dialogue in the deadlock. No. Kosovo took a considerable step in the long-awaited direction, accepting the Franco-German plan without reference for mutual recognition and also acknowledging the proposal of self-management for the Serb community. I immediately applauded Albin Kurti for this step and publicly, not just personally. Now is the time for Serbia to get out of the ditch of denial of reality and act in trust, enabling a process of implementation that meets the needs of both sides within the Franco-German plan.

Albania has extended the hand of friendship to Serbia. Ironically, it has in some case happened to be the only country in the region that has spoken out against sanctions against Serbia and we have clearly explained why we are convinced of this stance. However, and this should be highlighted, a successful conclusion of the normalisation process between Kosovo and Serbia is necessary even for the stable future of Albania-Serbia relations.

Unfortunately, as I try without success to understand the Kosovo government's tactics, I remain just as unsuccessful in trying to understand Serbia's dialogue strategy. I doubt Belgrade's strategy is to delay the process and benefit as much from Pristina's self-damaging tactics, which have consistently helped Serbia's sacrifice in the international arena.

Unfortunately, some also forget that we are no longer in the 1990 ' s. Albania is for peace, reconciliation, common future and points. But however, if things go wrong, Albania and Albanians are with Kosovo, and that's what the ball plays. That said, I sincerely hope that all involved in the normalisation process will be aware of what is being played today between Kosovo and Serbia and realize that any other option, except for immediate implementation, all involved, of the deal on the Franco-German plan on the road to normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia, is a game of fire, where the lion will burn first, but worse, at the end of the entire region, if it does not survive without a scorching Europe itself.

The successful conclusion of the normalisation process of Kosovo and Serbia is key to regional peace and security, as well as to Europe's own security.