Thursday, July 25, 2019

"Serbia is under pressure, while Pristina is praised. We are running out of patience"

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Foto: EPA-EFE / KOCA SULEJMANOVIC
The future of Belgrade-Pristina dialogue is pending, as we don't know in what direction the situation will go, Dacic stated

SOURCE: TANJUG THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2019 | 12:22

Serbian Foreign Affairs Chief added that we can expect new arrivals of international officials to Serbia at the end of August, offering new initiatives concerning Kosovo issue. Dacic reiterated that USA avoid exerting pressure on Serbia as they are aware that the problem is not in Belgrade, but in Pristina.

''John Bolton, National Security Advisor of the United States' President, shared this with me on a very successful meeting we conducted, which presents major change in US standpoint", Foreign Affairs Minister stated on TV Pink.

He underlined that big powers rarely change their strategic orientation, noticing that so-called "autopilot-guided" policy caused major damage to the US interests in the region.

Dacic had stated that France and its President Emmanuel Macron expressed willingness to take part in the resolve of Kosovo issue, adding that Macron's visit to Serbia was extraordinary.

"Members of his Cabinet hadn't still managed to process their impressions from Serbia's visit, as it overcome all their expactations", Dacic concluded.

While mentioning the issue of Belgrade and Pristina, Dacic stated that Serbia is being pressured to be constructive, to stop lobbying for the withdrawal of Kosovo's independence recognition, and preventing Kosovo from entering into international organizations, while in the same time, Pristina is being praised for establishing diplomatic relations with Antigua and Barbuda.

"We cannot restrain ourselves anymore. We continue on advocating the withdrawal of Kosovo recognition", Dacic said.

He announced that Kosovo is going to apply for membership into the Council of Europe, and Serbia had to be prepared for different scenarios regarding this particular matter.

In this respect, we need to establish correct relations with newly appointed Secretary General of the Council of Europe, former Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marija Pejcinovic Buric. Dacic also expressed his hopes that Croatia would, as EU presiding country, succeeding Finland in that capacity, largely contribute to further quickening of EU integration process of the whole region.

He pointed out that the relations between Serbs and Croats, as well as between Serbs and Albanians are crucially important, given that the members of all three nations reside in several countries.

He said that Serbia's relations with Nigeria are also important, as one of the largest Moslem states, which, as he said, faces with similar problems as Serbia.

"Nigeria hadn't recognized Kosovo's independence, but it supported its INTERPOL membership. So, we need to talk to them, they have to know what are our national interests, the same goes for Nicaragua, which hadn't recognized Kosovo, but was restrained on Interpol vote", Dacic pointed out.

He concluded that Serbia does not prevent Pristina's taking part in various initiatives, in accordance with the reached agreement, meaning as neutral when it comes to its status, not as an independent state.

Ethnic Greek Thymios Liolis war monument vandalised in Northern Epirus

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25 July 2019 Link


On Wednesday 24 July 2019, the Greek minority village of Krania in Albania was rocked by the sound of explosions. Suspected ultra-nationalist, irredentist Albanian groups attacked and dynamited the monument erected in the town to Thymios Liolis, an ethnic Greek who fought in the Balkan Wars for the liberation of Macedonia and for the autonomy of Northern Epirus. The word “Çamëria,” which is the Albanian word for Thesprotia, in Greece was found spray painted across the fragments of the monument, referring to Albanian irredentist claims over north western Greece.



The historical personage of Thymios Liolis has been the subject of protracted hate campaigns in the Albanian media of late, with documentaries being screened accusing the native Greek minority of the region of being disloyal by honouring the memory of Thymios Liolis, considered a traitor in Albanian nationalistic circles, for his advocacy of the rights of the native ethnic Greeks in the region.

The monument to Thymios Liolis in Krania has been vandalized several times in the past. The Foreign Ministry of Greece has expressed its disgust at the act of vandalism, calling upon the Albanian government to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice, and to restore a sense of security in the part of the country inhabited by native ethnic Greeks. The Panepirotic Federation of Australia has also condemned the crime, stating that acts of this nature are not commensurate with a civil developed society, or Albania’s projected membership of the European Union. Its secretary, Dean Kalimniou, called upon the Albanian government to respect the human rights of the Greeks of Northern Epirus and to take steps to guarantee their security from racist attacks.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Οι χώρες της περιοχής σιωπούν για τη «Μεγάλη Αλβανία», λέει ο Σέρβος ΥΠΑΜ

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Οι Σέρβοι λένε ανοιχτά: "Ακόμα και η Ελλάδα δεν πιστεύει στη Μεγάλη Αλβανία.

Όταν ήταν το 1990 και το τείχος του Βερολίνου, που παρασκευάζονται την εξέγερση της κατάρρευσης του κομμουνισμού στην Αλβανία, η μεγαλύτερη σερβική εφημερίδα «Borba», ανακοίνωσε ότι στης «αλβανικές φυλακές έχουν περάσει, 20 χιλιάδες πολιτικοί κρατούμενοι που είχαν καταδικαστεί ελληνική ιθαγένεια, και τον αγώνα τους για ελευθερία ».

Ήταν ώρα η Αλβανία να προετοιμαστεί για τον Κωνσταντίνο Μητσοτάκη, αλλά η ελληνική κυβέρνηση,  και οι Βρυξέλλες, η Ουάσινγκτον ή το ΝΑΤΟ, μαθαίνουν χρόνια από τη Γιουγκοσλαβία πληροφορίες σχετικά με την κατάσταση στην Αλβανία.

Σήμερα, το Βελιγράδι κατηγορεί ανοιχτά την Ελλάδα, η οποία δεν λαμβάνει μέτρα για την καταπολέμηση της Μεγάλης Αλβανίας, αν και στη Νότια Αλβανία, εθνοί Έλληνες όπως η Χιμάρα βιώνουν τον Έθνικο Καθαρισμό.

Η Ελλάδα υποχρεούται να ξυρίσει διπλωματία με την Αλβανία, λόγω της 12 ναυτικά μίλια, από τη μία πλευρά, και από την άλλη πλευρά, έχει αφήσει ελεύθερο το πεδίο δράσης, ολιγάρχες αλβανικής μαφίας και του Κοσσυφοπεδίου, για τον έλεγχο της ελληνικής επικράτειας στη Χιμάρα.

Από την άποψη αυτή, αξίζει να πούμε γιατί το Βελιγράδι παροτρύνει τις βαλκανικές χώρες να φροντίσουν τη Μεγάλη Αλβανία, ενώ η Ελλάδα δεν μπόρεσε να περιορίσει την εισβολή σε εδάφη της Νότιας Αλβανίας, όπου ζει ιστορικά, η Ελληνική Εθνοτική Κοινότητα, Η Βόρεια Ήπειρος, η οποία καταζητείται από τα Τίρανα για την κατάργησή της, σπάζοντας τις εθνοτικές ισορροπίες με βία.

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«Οι προσπάθειες για τη δημιουργία «Μεγάλης Αλβανίας» απειλούν τα Βαλκάνια: Βουλίν και Χαρτσένκο για την κατάσταση στην περιοχή», γράφει το σερβικό δημοσίευμα

Ιούλιος 24, 2019. Echedoros

Ιδιαίτερα ανησυχητική είναι η σιωπή της διεθνούς κοινότητας αλλά και των χωρών της περιοχής στις προσπάθειες για τη δημιουργία «Μεγάλης Αλβανίας», δήλωσε ο Βουλίν.

Ο υπουργός Άμυνας Αλεξάνταρ Βουλίν, συναντήθηκε σήμερα με τον νεοδιορισθέντα  πρέσβη  της Ρωσίας, Αλεξάντερ Μποκάν – Χαρτσένκο και επεσήμανε ότι η προσπάθεια σχηματισμού του «στρατού Κοσσυφοπεδίου» είναι εντελώς απαράδεκτη και ότι όλες οι προσπάθειες για τη δημιουργία μιας «Μεγάλης Αλβανίας» απειλούν την ειρήνη σε ολόκληρα τα Βαλκάνια.


Ο υπουργός χαιρέτισε τον Μποκάν- Χαρτσένκο και εξέφρασε την ευγνωμοσύνη του προς τον προηγούμενο πρέσβη της Ρωσίας, Αλεξάντερ Τσεπούριν, για τη συμβολή στη βελτίωση της αμυντικής συνεργασίας μεταξύ των δύο χωρών, προσθέτοντας ότι είναι πεπεισμένος ότι η συνεργασία με τον πρέσβη Μποκάν- Χαρτσένκο ως σπουδαίο γνώστη των ευκαιριών στα Βαλκάνια, θα συνεχισθεί.


Σύμφωνα με τον Βουλίν, μεταξύ των χωρών μας υπάρχουν ιστορικές βαθιές ρίζες και μια ανοικτή ειλικρινής σχέση μεταξύ των δύο προέδρων και ανώτατων διοικητών των στρατών της Δημοκρατίας της Σερβίας και της Ρωσικής Ομοσπονδίας.


Ο Αλεξάνταρ Βούτσιτς και ο Βλαντίμιρ Πούτιν μπορούν να συνεχίσουν τις σχέσεις ένα γεγονός που σίγουρα θα συμβάλει στην επίτευξη ακόμη καλύτερων αποτελεσμάτων στον τομέα της αμυντικής συνεργασίας καθώς και της συνολικής συνεργασίας.


Στη σημερινή συνάντηση, η στρατιωτικο-πολεμική συνεργασία αξιολογήθηκε ως μία από τις πιο επιτυχημένες πτυχές της συνεργασίας Σερβίας και Ρωσίας και συγκεκριμένα η πραγματοποίηση κοινών ασκήσεων και η συνέχιση της στρατιωτικο-τεχνικής συνεργασίας, ανέφερε το υπουργείο σε δήλωσή του.

Haradinaj's ties with "yellow house": Americans obstructed the investigation

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Foto: EPA-EFE / VALDRIN XHEMAJ
Former KLA Commander and Kosovo's Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj is in the Hague for the second time, while the crime he is suspected of remains unrevealed

SOURCE: TANJUG WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2019 | 09:19

International sources speculate that his responsibility for organ trafficking in the case of ''yellow house'' is now at stake, Blic reports.

The first serious approach to this crime was led by UNMIK which made a report in 2003, the evidence of which were, allegedly, destroyed in the Tribunal for War Crimes for the former Yugoslavia.

UNMIK investigators entered Albania in disguise, gathering evidence and testimonies of the former KLA fighters. According to those testimonies, almost all the people kidnapped by Haradinaj's commanders were sent to the camps in Albania.

Except Haradinaj, the spokesperson of KLA, Jakup Krasniqi, who was the head of Kosovo Assembly briefly, has been mentioned in those testimonies. He was also summoned to the Hague, for questioning.

According to the evidence, main points of contact for transferring the victims from Kosovo to Albania were: Daut Haradinaj, Sami Lushtaku and Jakup Krasniqi, "Blic" writes. UNMIK speaks about the involvement of Naim Maloku, who was summoned to the Hague on June 10, being one of Haradinaj's advisors.

U.S. investigators had largely contributed to this investigation of human organs trafficking, particularly an American with the initials D.L., whom "Blic" contacted.

However, this American was "processed" by Albanian secret service that issued instructions to the local prosecutors not to cooperate in full capacity with him and to obstruct investigation in any way possible.

"Americans revealed four locations with a possible mass graves in Albania. With this past data, and the testimonies of the Albanians, there is also the investigation done on the part of Dick Marty", the source of "Blic" from "EULEX" claims.

Visho Ajazi Lika, former head of Albanian Secret Service, added that he was pressured not to cooperate with the international services in relation with the case of "yellow house" and mass graves in Albania, so he resigned from that position.

""The organ trafficking and the previous kidnapping and transportation of Serbs and Albanians to Albania was not possible without Haradinaj and his superiors. The brother of the former prime minister is also involved. A group of soldiers and officers of the Albanian army were also acquainted with transportation, detaining, torture and burial, because as a military formation they participated in the fighting at the border line in 1998 and 1999, says the source of "Blic".

It is assumed that the organs were sold for the price amounting from DM 25.000 to 100.000.

Haradinaj differed from the other commanders in terms of the number, that is, the territorial extent of the zone he used to hold. When looking at the area that Haradinaj managed, the fact is that he was the one holding the territory towards Albania.

Monday, July 22, 2019

Αλβανία: Ο Έλληνας ΥΠΕΞ ζητά την εφαρμογή της συμφωνίας για την Ελληνική Μειονότητα

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Ιούλιος 22, 2019. Echedoros

Τίρανα.

Ο υπουργός Εξωτερικών της Ελλάδας, Νίκος Δένδιας, κατά τη διάρκεια των τριήμερων κοινοβουλευτικών συζητήσεων στο πλαίσιο των προγραμματικών δηλώσεων της νέας κυβέρνησης, μιλώντας για την εκπλήρωση των διεθνών δεσμεύσεων, εξέφρασε τα κύρια σημεία που θα ακολουθήσουν την επίσημη εξωτερική πολιτική της Αθήνας, μεταξύ άλλων σε σχέση με την Αλβανία, σημειώνει  η αλβανική ραδιοτηλεόραση.


«Είναι ήδη γεγονός», είπε ο Δένδιας, «η Αλβανία, από τις δύο σημαντικές συμφωνίες που υπέγραψε με την Ελλάδα το 2009, έχει αρχίσει να εφαρμόζει μόνο μία, ακόμη και τώρα, της κατασκευής στρατιωτικών κοιμητηρίων για τους Έλληνες στρατιώτες που έπεσαν στον Β΄ Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο, έτσι περιμένουμε την πλήρη εφαρμογή της».


Ο επικεφαλής της ελληνικής διπλωματίας ζήτησε από τα Τίρανα, την εφαρμογή της δεύτερης συμφωνίας, των δικαιωμάτων των μειονοτήτων και των δικαιωμάτων της ιδιοκτησίας της Ελληνικής Εθνικής Μειονότητας.


«Για το λόγο αυτό, στο πλαίσιο της έναρξης των διαπραγματεύσεων ένταξης της Αλβανίας (για την οποία η ΕΕ έχει δώσει σαφείς όρους) θα συνεχίσουμε να παρακολουθούμε εκ του σύνεγγυς την εκπλήρωση από την Αλβανία των 5 κορυφαίων προτεραιοτήτων.


Θα συνεχίσουμε να παρακολουθούμε στενά και θα εργαζόμαστε για το σεβασμό των ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων για όλους τους πολίτες της, συμπεριλαμβανομένων των δικαιωμάτων ιδιοκτησίας της  ελληνικής εθνικής μειονότητας», δήλωσε ο Νίκος Δένδιας.




Ο Έλληνας υπουργός Άμυνας  αναφέρθηκε στις σχέσεις με τις άλλες βαλκανικές χώρες, μεταξύ των οποίων και η Βόρεια Μακεδονία, τονίζοντας ταυτόχρονα ότι η Ελλάδα δεν έχει την πολυτέλεια άλλων χωρών της ΕΕ, στο πλαίσιο της εθνικής ασφάλειας, αναφέροντας την επιθετική συμπεριφορά της Τουρκίας, για την οποία έχει ζητήσει, εάν ζητά ειλικρινείς διμερείς σχέσεις,  αυτές θα πρέπει να βασίζονται στο σεβασμό του διεθνούς δικαίου.

The Trump Administration Is Helping Kill Albania’s Democracy

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The State Department’s latest intervention in a European election served nobody’s interests at all.

BY AGIM NESHO | JULY 22, 2019, 10:51 AM

Albanian opposition supporters wave their national flag and a U.S. flag during a protest demanding the resignation of the Albanian prime minister outside the government building in Tirana on Feb. 16.
Albanian opposition supporters wave their national flag and a U.S. flag during a protest demanding the resignation of the Albanian prime minister outside the government building in Tirana on Feb. 16.
Albanian opposition supporters wave their national flag and a U.S. flag during a protest demanding the resignation of the Albanian prime minister outside the government building in Tirana on Feb. 16.
GENT SHKULLAKU/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Much has been written the last two years about the retreat of democracy around the world and the onset of what has been called a “democratic recession.” Russian interference, Chinese expansionism, European stagnation, and the turning away of the United States from the liberal world order it helped establish are all factors that have been cited to explain this trend.

But there is another particularly subtle, equally dangerous, and overlooked factor contributing to instability and the rollback of democracy. That factor is confusion—specifically, confusion about the Trump administration’s diplomacy. Consider the case of Albania. The U.S. State Department’s recent interference in local elections has turned a minor political mess into a combustible situation with no clear way out.




Albania today has been in a constitutional crisis since February. A series of leaks published in the German newspaper Bild revealed systematic vote buying and rigging by the ruling Socialist government of Prime Minister Edi Rama in the 2017 parliamentary elections. The opposition coalition of the Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration, protesting widespread corruption in Rama’s government and questioning the legitimacy of the parliamentary elections, resigned their parliamentary seats, vowing to boycott the political process until Rama stepped down and the Socialists formed a new government.

In the face of escalating protests and popular pressure, Albanian President Ilir Meta canceled nationwide local elections that were scheduled for June 30, rescheduling them for October. In the meantime, he invited both the government and opposition to negotiate a solution to the crisis. But the Rama-led government unilaterally pressed on with the elections despite the boycott, orchestrating what has been ridiculed by many Albanians as a communist-style “election without choice.” The ruling Socialists were the only candidates in 35 out of 61 districts, with some leftist and center-right parties running against them in the rest.

The Socialists have also initiated proceedings to impeach and remove the president under a pretense that he acted unconstitutionally to cancel the vote. (The Constitutional Court has been unable to weigh in because its judges are undergoing anti-corruption vetting.) Taken together, these actions threaten to turn the country into a one-party state in which all the institutions of power—all mayors offices and local councils, parliament, council of ministers, prosecutor general, the presidency, and the courts—are controlled by one party, with the elected representatives of more than 45 percent of the country, represented by the opposition, protesting in the streets for due process.

Matthew Palmer, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, stepped into this already tense pre-election situation in a way that managed to make matters worse. There were two aspects to Palmer’s intervention: holding the opposition responsible for any violence and validating the go-it-alone, one-party June 30 elections. While the first message is understandable, the second runs counter to all democratic principles.

Palmer perplexingly argued that the elections should first be held (even at the expense of creating a one-party state without checks and balances), followed by the government’s selection of a new constitutional court, which would then decide on the validity of the vote. (At this point, the opposition would never accept the legitimacy of a constitutional court unless it plays a role in its selection.) He also implicitly suggested that the United States would cut ties with any parties whose supporters engaged in violence, without acknowledging the merits of the opposition’s grievances about having been unjustly marginalized in the electoral process. A basic premise of governance is that for institutions to function properly—whether elections or courts—they need to be viewed as legitimate. Palmer suggested that Albanians ignore this principle, without acknowledging the dangerous consequences.

Up until the June 30 elections, Albania was a democracy without functioning institutions fighting for the fairness of its elections; as of July 1, thanks to the dangerous path taken by Rama’s coalition and a misplaced intervention by Palmer, the country today is neither a democracy nor a republic.

Albanian voters ultimately ignored both the Socialist government’s campaigning and Palmer’s attempted intervention by silently abstaining from the election. The result was a historically low turnout of around 20 percent in the elections. In its stinging analysis of the elections, the international observation mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe concluded that they were held “with little regard for the interests of the electorate.”

All this raises serious questions of the State Department, which is still advocating that Albanians accept the legitimacy of these elections. On what basis would the United States deny the demands for fairness by the opposition, who cannot trust their electoral process? Why not follow the path of compromise offered by Albania’s own legitimately elected president? There is no clear resolution to the approach Palmer and his fellow State Department officials have pursued.

There are also broader questions raised by this affair: Who’s minding the store at the State Department while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo focuses on key hot spots and foreign-policy initiatives? Who is guiding the U.S. bureaucrats who play such a key role in maintaining the stability of fragile countries and regions around the world and with what principles? It seems clear that the unprecedented lack of senior-level confirmations at the State Department is taking its toll.