Gorani: The fate of the endless Kurt from “Zieednica”

Although the West made intense efforts to approach the parties by putting the solution on the table, renowned journalist Dukagjin Gorani sees neither determination nor will in Euro-Atlantic efforts to close the conflict.

“The West has no reason to be decisive, while the parties later recalled that they did not want an agreement that was accepted and signed at least three times over ten years” he praised in an interview for the Express Journal.

Goran sees the structural resurface of the entire process as a way out, even though it seems difficult. The hostage sees Kurt currently leading the country.

For our guidance, the larger its centre is than the historical solution. I'm afraid that because of the anger that is spreading to ignorance, he will first accept federalisation with Serbia, rather than a solution that draws us to Albania” he stresses.

But it doesn't end here what Goran has to say about the head of government.

“Albin Kurti has become prime minister, having a huge lack of knowledge and experience on political and historical issues between us, Serbs and the international community”.

“armed with only teenage rhetoric, Kurti has been convinced that a mess of complicated strategic, political, economic and security interests what dialogue is can only be manipulated with language formulas” he adds.

Gorani has also commented on the European Association Proposal that the EU is expected to start immediately after the holidays.

“The professional interpretation of the draft EU status is leaving it to field experts. I'm not pretending to be able to work it out with judicial accuracy. But, as far as it can be understood politically, it is about the autonomous province for Serbs within the territory of the Republic of Kosovo”.

“Zajednica, such as is being proposed, risks starting a new conflict. I think that's already clear to everyone. Kosovo is too small a state to absorb such great territorial and political autonomy within itself” he stresses.

According to Goran, the fate of Prime Minister Kurti is linked to Asociation, the creation that the international community is looking for, and that Kurti had “sounds exaggerated by field successes, easily swallowed up a few months ago”.

Today, judged by his recent statements, he is seen to have understood the game, as usual, with the tragic delay of him and the country. Already, his destiny and political career are incompatible with Zajednica. If he doesn't, he has to leave; if he does, he'll be humiliated and, again, gone. It says... ”

Full Interview

Question: Kosovo and Serbia are continuing their drama, which this year reached a dangerous point like the Banjska case. Do you see determination in the West and will on the parties to close the conflict perhaps during the year 2024?

Gorani: No, I see neither determination nor will. The West is having no reason to be decisive, while the parties later agreed that they did not want an agreement that was accepted and signed at least three times over ten years.

Serbia wants northern Kosovo, not Zajednica. Kosovo wants to keep north, but not even implement Zajednica. Formally, the West can force the parties, but he doesn't want to.

I don't see that this absurd situation has a solution except for structural re-evaluation of the whole process. If no one loves Zajednica, there is no need to be established. We all know there is another solution, but Albin Kurti's government is terrified of it. Kurt came to power to despise and demonize him.

That's a big problem. Reassigning the borders can hardly be returned to the table, but it is not entirely impossible if there is mutual will. For our guidance, however, it is more than the historical solution. I'm afraid that because of the anger that's going out of his ignorance, he will first accept federalisation with Serbia rather than a solution that draws us to Albania.

Question: EU High Representative Josep Borelli and then three European leaders said Kurti and Vuciq in October have pledged to implement the agreements they have been proposed. If in such forms of meetings what happened to Chief Minister Kurti and Serbia's President Aleksandar Vuciq with European leaders is pledged, should the word given be taken?

Gorani: Perhaps the word given is held in the West. In us in the Balkans, treachery is considered virtue, while keeping the word ʹ weakness. Currently, in Serbia and Kosovo two ultra-Balkan structures are in power: promise without fear of eye and betray without shame. Of course, even earlier powers have been similar, but these currents, Vuchy and Kurti, have raised treachery and irresponsibly to levels but you're saying fun. In past years, breaking agreements took place within weeks or months: Today, it is done in a sentence, within a communique or press conference. For example, today we are accustomed to considering it normal when the prime minister, president or speaker of the Parliament begin their speech with the rejection of the agreement and end with its admission. Or vice versa. I don't have a chance to see this basic shortage of scrulli.

Question: If Kurt is willing to establish Association and Vuciq make the de facto” recognition as the leaders of France, Germany, and Italy as well as the United States without formal recognition, is this a formula that can stop old hostilities and ensure some normality?

Gorani: Zajednica, such as is being proposed, risks starting a new conflict. I think that's already clear to everyone. Kosovo is too small a state to absorb such great territorial and political autonomy within itself. A quarter century has passed through the war with Serbia, and two peoples are extremely alienated by each other.

Remember, relations between Albanians and Serbs cannot be compared to the authenticity of Croats, Bosniaks, Montenegrins or even Macedonians with Serbs. All of them speak and understand a common language, live within a common cultural space that also maintained their political, economic, and social proximity. As formally they refuse to accept it, however, that remains a fact. Historically, they are peoples close to each other. But not us.

With Albanians and Serbs, the issue is much easier yet much harder. Today we do not speak, nor do we understand each other's language. Political worldviews, cultural efficiency and social logic are diametrically contrary. We look to the West, the East. Today, there is no minimum mention of former common living if there ever was such a thing. Personally, and only for age, I meet a very small number of people who still speak Serbian or Serbo-Croatian, what was once called. Today's ideological cities of Belgrade for the Serbian World perhaps can make sense in the Balkan district, but not in us. Kosovo Albanians can't even understand it linguistically, let alone structurally.

So, what are we talking about? After nearly 50 years of deliberate and systematic departure, two peoples who do not want to live with each other cannot and should not be forced into involuntari coexistence. Today, we don't even know each other. As it says in English, we're fully trained. As always before, I am convinced that we must find solutions that will enable us to have correct neighbourly relations, by no means conflicting co-existence.

Question: Association remains a difficult point. Although Prime Minister Kurti is said to have accepted it, accepting the funding proposals for implementation is not easy. In fact, do you believe that you will see this prime minister establishing an association that has disputed with almost all means?

Gorani: Albin Kurti has become prime minister, having huge lack of knowledge and experience on political and historical issues between us, Serbs and the international community. Made in the margins of a quasy-political activism, he and his organisation have been led with shallow conviction on this political process filled with dissonant international interest, full of regional co-operation and challenges. Armed with only teenage rhetoric, Kurti has been convinced that a mess of complicated strategic, political, economic and security interests what dialogue is can only be manipulated with language formulas. Like the way he built Vetevendosje into an empire of words, the same has tried to implement it in the complex method of international realism in the adult world. In the end, it has become the object of ridicule and sanctions that he personally, and with it, the entire Republic of Kosovo.

The last few days seem to have understood the horror of manipulation that easily swallowed him this year, first in Brussels and then in Ohrid. It seems that today he is aware that he has fallen into the oldest deception in the world when he first encourages and beats his arm for careless behavior, and a few months later to condition and blackmail him.

The establishment of order and law in the north, the war of criminal gangs in the north, the deployment of special police in the north, the rejection of Serbian elections in Kosovo, etc.... all of these were allowed by Kurti by the supreme political and security authorities in Kosovo (QUINT, KFOR, EULEX) with a single goal of ♫ eventually accepting Zaednica's Drift station, which is on the table today. This animal, which, overwhelmed by success in the field, swallowed easily a few months ago.

Today, judged by his recent statements, he is seen to have understood the porse, as usual, with a tragic delay for him and the country. Already, his destiny and political career are incompatible with Zajednica. If he doesn't, he has to leave; if he does, he'll be humiliated and, again, gone. Little knowledge is dangerous, it says...

Question: According to what we have seen in the draft state that has already been published is not just about an association but about an autonomy that Kosovo Serbs are gaining that enables institutionalised influence of Serbia. There are even estimates that this in the future will lead to Kosovo federalisation. But, the US and the EU say this should happen in accordance with the Kosovo Constitution. Is such guarantees enough?

Gorani: The professional performance of the draft EU summit is leaving it to field experts. I'm not pretending to be able to work it out with judicial accuracy. But, as far as it can be understood politically, it is about the autonomous province for Serbs within the territory of the Republic of Kosovo. For an autonomy that has regular official presence, economic assistance and political support from the Republic of Serbia. In short, according to this draft-Sttuti, Zajednica is an administrative extension of Serbia within Kosovo territory.

I agree that with its implementation the foundation of a country's dualist system of government, since Kosovo would be co-governed by the government in Pristina and in Belgrade. I'd like to say that this looks very much like the current arrangement in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Dayton and Republika Srpska Agreement, but in reality it's much, much more difficult than that, for reasons mentioned earlier. In Kosovo, this would be the federal arrangement between two peoples who do not speak common language, who in everyday life do not understand each other without translators or without recognition of any international language. Let's not talk about the fact that the state of Serbia does not hide its goal of Zajednica promoting instability in Kosovo, not as far away from the bridge between two peoples.

Of course, we can't blame the West here that such an adjustment understands perfectly normal and applicable. States such as Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and many others live in federal and confederial adjustments with different and official languages and cultures. We all know that. Naturally, the West expects us to function likewise.

But I didn't see during this last 30 years that one of these two peoples even learned each other's language. I'm not even seeing any readiness today from any of the peoples (and governments) that ethnic minorities consider state and social wealth rather than the ethnopolitical and demographic barrier. So, again, what are we talking about here?

As for the Constitution, an international agreement is considered constitutional. An agreement on Zajednica, reached between Kosovo, Serbia and the international community, will be considered somehow in accordance with the Constitution. Something else is whether it will function or deepen differences between the two peoples.

As for the West, the agreements function as long as there is the will for their implementation and maintenance. He hopes Serbia and Kosovo have that will since both claim membership in the EU, etc. From experience, however, we know that both countries and both people are lying. Therefore, the odds are that the two governments in Pristina and Belgrade take some formal steps in carrying out the agreement and then paralyse it by continuing with the old.

Question: In this intensive process of dialogue and development on the ground Kosovo ended with EU sanctions, they were not removed even when Kosovo came to an attack from Serbia, so Banjska, how did we end up in this report with Brussels and Washington?

Gorani: For us, Banjska was the moment of Serbia's aggression towards Kosovo. For the West, Banjska was (also) the consequence of the government's irresponsible policies in Pristina towards the north and Serbs. Of course, there was also aggression, but caused by the gradual transition of the political and security situation. As far as I understand the political logic of the West, we should be happy that they did not expand sanctions against us after Banjska.

Apparently, we are still not able to understand the way we are seen and appreciated from abroad -- not as a victim, but as an irresponsible state towards minorities, multiethnic co-existence and regional co-operation. For the same time I have to repeat: it's not important that our truth, it's just that it prevails at the end. And in our case and the whole Balkans, this is Western truth. This is because truth is established by the one who has the real power of military, political, economic, and cultural power, not by the one who offers historical facts and the rudeness of justice and morality in politics.

We ran into Washington's Brussels when we decided to separate our truth from their truth for us. This process did not begin with the Kurti government, but once the slide reached its climax. Today, we and the West interpret the world and our place in it completely differently. Sad to say, considering that from the beginnings, we committed so much to harmonizing these truths. But, possibly, every Balkan society is coming at a time of confrontation with the West. Apparently, now is our moment.

Question: You've been discussing these issues for a long time this year, Prime Minister Kurti has had a stubborn approach to dialogue. Has this ever paid off in these agreements?

Gorani: Far from it. His stubbornness has been used successfully against him. First, they allowed him to believe that he could behave as he wished and then imposed sanctions on him and forced him to accept a much worse deal than those of old. Irritability is a lack of intelligence and fear of change. Apparently, Kurt confuses it with dignity and consistency. Absurd.

Finally, what did he gain with dignified stubbornness? Economic and political sanctions and the EU draft state for a federal Kosovo. He won this.

Today, Kurt has definitely stuck himself in an impossible situation. He cannot implement Zajednica and has no face to demand the return of border redefinition. There is no intermediate solution. In panic at the deadlock in which he got into himself, the Tevon also came up with an idea as banal, as disturbing as it was, which only spread his teenage logic away - the threat of war.

So, now two to three months, all of the government and presidential waitresses develops only one story, one of the potential dangers of war, in order to intimidate citizens. Every happy day, Kurti, Osmani, Konjufca, Gervala and many others constantly mention the possibility of war for a single purpose: forcing Kosovo society to accept Zajednica by interpreting escape from destruction and murder.

This narrator, as naive as it is dangerous, is appearing young and transparent. No one in the West talks about any possible war in Kosovo, much less in Serbia. On the other hand, besides the pompous mention of the war in interview statements, Kurti and Osman do not take up any action. Nor does anyone speak of any population mobilization, nor of plans to protect the population. Just empty words. This, because they both know the war talk is just a bunch of kids.

However, it is also the indicator of their embarrassment, faced with the application of Zajednica. They think blackmailing either Zajednica or war will really work.

Question: Many of the things that are happening include making Serbia's decision to allow the flow of cars with RKS plates across its territory is seeing as a scenario prepared by the West through which Kosovo and Serbia should walk. Do you believe in this, or should we wait for the end?

Gorani: Why, don't you think the northern Serbs voluntarily and, out of fear of Kurt and Pristina, were taken one morning and went to get plates. RX? This madness can only formulate a spokesman for Vetevendosje.

Of course it's all crazy. Kurti also came across this at the conference of the end of the year with journalists. Through this action Belgrade is trying to prove that it is fulfilling its obligations, while adding pressure on Kurti to force it to implement Zajednica. We're going to investigate this pressure at the beginning of the new year.

Question: Do you believe that EU instruments, the promise of membership in this organisation, the funds that countries receive, that this soft power is enough to convince Kosovo and Serbia to implement agreements

Gorani: These funds have one condition, as well as the EU membership process is marked by the term cycondictionality. There is no money without fulfillment of vows. And for Kosovo, what is the pledge on pledges: implementation of Zajednica, which, according to Brussels, leads to neighbourhood normalisation. But does Kurt dare to do so and escape the judgment of history?

As far as I can see, until a few weeks ago, he thought he could do it. Now, again, he's changed his mind: draft-Stitut is being a historically unreasonable bite.

On the other hand, no one in the opposition is interested in catching Kurt's chair. It has been but an electric chair for the execution of political careers for years.

So in this macabre fun, we're all waiting for the next clan step in Government and Presidency. What other tactic will you remember if this is not starting with war? What's next farce, next fiction next? EU funds maybe? Any next hit on citizens? I keep being curious.