January 30, 2021
The leader of Self-Determination, Albin Kurti, stated today that he is in favor of a referendum for unification with Albania, but not if that would lead to the Third Balkan War.
Kurti told the Oxford Political Review that a final agreement with Serbia could be reached, but there should be the will and sincere intentions of both sides.
“We have to make clear demands on each other. Serbia has some demands for Kosovo, as we have for them. In addition, it is necessary to revise all 33 preliminary agreements from Brussels, which are not being implemented. “We have to close that chapter in order to move forward,” Kurti said, Kossev reports.
He pointed out that Belgrade should not identify with Slobodan Milosevic and regret the loss of Kosovo, and he claimed that he was ready to listen to all the needs and demands of Serbs from Kosovo.
“I must say, however, that I am not ready to get involved in a project that should compensate Serbia for the loss of Kosovo as a state that declared independence almost 13 years ago,” Kurti said. According to him, the tears on the face of the President of Serbia are not the tears of ordinary Serbs, but the tears of Serbia as a state, which lost Kosovo during the Milosevic regime.
Ordinary citizens are the ones who should feel the benefits of dialogue and the final agreement, not politicians, said Kurti, noting that such an approach is currently being applied.
Kurti also spoke about the referendum for unification with Albania, a topic that came back into the public spotlight after Ramush Haradinaj repeatedly said in the election campaign that it would take place in 2025, if Kosovo does not become an equal member of the United Nations by then. Kurti says that for non-majority communities in Kosovo – Serbs, Bosniaks and Turks – he is primarily a “citizen of the Republic”, but that this changes when Serbia tries to interfere in the internal affairs of Kosovo, both political and other.
“In that situation, Kosovo is a weak state to oppose the hegemony of Serbia, so I have to become primarily Albanian as a result,” says Kurti.
He added that after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the goal was to create a “Greater Serbia”, concluding that Serbs did not integrate anywhere in the region because Belgrade did not allow them to do so.
“Ordinary Serb citizens might want to integrate, but Serbia does not allow them to do so,” Kurti said. On the other hand, when it comes to Albanians, Kurti says that they would like a referendum on unification with Albania to be organized. He reminded that the first article of the Kosovo constitution states that Kosovo is an “independent state”, but the same article also states that Kosovo cannot join another country.
He points out that he would not want any kind of violent or undemocratic unification to happen, but believes that Kosovo should have the right to organize a referendum, which would not necessarily lead to unification. “If this can be done peacefully and democratically, we will accept the results of the referendum, but we will not start the Third Balkan War because of unification with Albania,” Kurti said. Link
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