KTV editor-in-chief Adriatik Kelmendi writes in his opinion piece that the visit by “Serbian General Ljubisa Dikovic, a person accused of war crimes in Kosovo, in addition to insulting the victims of war, a grave mistake by local institutions and the ignorance of KFOR, contains something even more terrible and with serious consequences”. “This involves Serbia’s attempt to bring Kosovo’s airspace under its control and Brussels’ readiness to endorse this”. Kelmendi notes that the first step of this enterprise was made on Sunday, when COMKFOR General Guglielmo Luigi Miglietta signed with Dikovic, as representative of the Serbian Army, the agreement on the full relaxation of the air safety zone. “This was a direct result of NATO and the West’s interests to bring Serbia closer as a response to the Russian Federation’s increasing ambitions in the region. In the same spirit was last week’s meeting in Belgrade between Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the latter saying that this approximation is a result of Serbia’s commitment to normalize relations with Kosovo”. Kelmendi further notes that he learned from Western diplomatic circles that Marko Djuric, head of the Serbian Government’s Office for Kosovo, visited Brussels in early September to meet senior EU officials. Djuric reportedly submitted to Brussels a request by the Serbian Government to bring Kosovo’s airspace under its control. The same sources reportedly said that EU officials expressed understanding for the request and said that it could become a reality. “Western diplomats, who are aware of Serbia’s request to Brussels, fear that the EU and NATO could easily accept Belgrade taking control over Kosovo’s airspace. The prevailing reasoning of Brussels representatives in this case is: the closer and more integrated Serbia is with EU institutions and NATO, the fewer problems it can cause in Kosovo,” Kelmendi writes. He further argues that so far Kosovo has counted on Western support and has relied on NATO troops as a factor of stability and Kosovo’s territorial integrity from Serbia’s threat. “Today however many argue that political representatives in Pristina are acting nonchalantly toward the West and that Serbia will not hesitate to capitalize on this. This would have been the biggest blow to Kosovo’s sovereignty and it would revive Serbia’s unquenched ambition to return to Kosovo”. In closing, Kelmendi criticizes the narrow-minded policymaking by the majority of Kosovo politicians. “Many of them believe that Kosovo is still at the center of world attention as in 1999. Most of them forget that Milosevic is no longer in power in Belgrade, that the United States of America are involved in several conflicts, that Russia’s power has grown significantly and that the refugee crisis and ISIS terrorism are the main topics of foreign governments. I don’t think it will take too long for us to see the damages that Kosovo will suffer from this kind of political myopia”.
