Jeremić: Kosovo is Serbia’s Jerusalem

17 January 2010, The New York Times

NEW YORK -- Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić, who was the Saturday profile in the New York Times this week, said that Kosovo is Serbia’s Jerusalem. Vuk Jeremić (FoNet archive) “The fact that this kind of fervent, pro-European politician in Serbia happens to have this position on Kosovo confuses a lot of people,” Jeremić said. “This place, Kosovo, is our Jerusalem; you just can’t treat it any other way than our Jerusalem,” he said. Jeremić did not say what Serbia would demand if the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rules in its favor on the legality of Kosovo and forces the issue to return to the negotiation table. He said that the U.S. and its allies made a mistake before the declaration for proclaiming Kosovo independence, by substituting debates on the issue with an imposed solution. Their other big mistake, he said, was expecting Serbia simply to acquiesce to the loss of the province, cowed in the face of American and Western European recognition for Kosovo. “This energy we invested, you know, in going around the world, has surprised a lot of people,” Jeremić said. “A lot of people didn’t expect us to dare to try.” The Times noticed that Jeremić said been fighting for Kosovo very strongly, lobbying all around the world. In the last two years, he has visited 90 countries, while in 2009, he spent 700 in the air, traveling, the New York daily stated in its story on Serbia’s image change and its new face, the young minister Jeremić. Jeremić’s stridency on Kosovo has led his opponents to charge that he was a closet nationalist, talking one line when he was abroad and quite a different one at home in the Balkans. “Personally, I don’t think I’m a nationalist,” he said. “I’m half Bosnian and half Serb.” Jeremić sees his age, which many consider a weakness, as one of his assets. “When you’re young, and when you come and they see you for the first time, a lot of them are just kind of surprised. They say, ‘Who’s this kid?’ “That’s actually a good thing because it opens up their minds. They’re curious. They want to hear what you have to say to them because you’re different,” he said. Stating that President Tadić was once Jeremić’s high school teacher and is now his political mentor, the Times adds that the current Serbian government is Serbia’s “most Western-oriented” government it has ever had. The daily also states that Belgrade is aggressively making progress towards European Union membership and good relations with the U.S.