Delawie: Kosovo at the brink due to political deadlock (Kallxo/RTK)
The Ambassador of the United States of America to Kosovo, Greg Delawie, said in an interview for Pristina-based news site Kallxo on Tuesday that Kosovo stands at the brink due to the political situation created during the last six months. “First of all I support the President’s initiative to resolve the political deadlock through dialogue. I look forward to further engagements by the party leaders. I have to say, I have been disappointed by some of the reactions that I have heard to yesterday’s meetings. It is important for people to recognize that citizens employ politicians to make decisions. Some of those decisions are controversial, but using words like treason or dictatorship to characterize decisions of the politicians when they do their job, really makes dialogue harder, it makes democracy more difficult and it really makes it more difficult to have the kind of the effect on Kosovo’s democratic development that we all want to see. Kosovo at this point I think stands at a brink. Progress is possible but it is not assured. There is a lot of work that remains to be done and a functioning Assembly will have to do that work,” Delawie said.
Ymeri: Haradinaj made a mistake by going to Jahjaga’s meeting (Zeri)
In a front-page interview for the paper, Vetevendosje leader Visar Ymeri said that the leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj made a “political mistake” by attending the government-opposition meeting called by the Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga. Ymeri said the only solution to the current crisis is for the government to step down and pave way for fresh elections. He said the upcoming opposition protest scheduled for 17 February will not only call for the annulment of agreements with Serbia and Montenegro but also for the resignation of the government.
Haradinaj says he will not go to Jahjaga’s meetings anymore (dailies)
The leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj said in an interview for Klan Kosova that he felt unease when he attended the meeting of political leaders called on by President Atifete Jahjaga and that he will not take part in future meetings of such character.
Tahiri: Association depends on dissolving of parallel structures (Epoka e Re)
Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri told RTK2 on Tuesday that it is difficult to talk about the implementation of the Agreement on the Association/Community of Serb-majority Municipalities reached with Serbia in August last year. She said that the institutions of Kosovo should be the ones to deal with the statute of the Association, not Belgrade. “The statute of the ACSM will be valid only when the Constitutional Court assesses that the statute is in accordance with the Constitution,” Tahiri said. She appealed to the government of Serbia to stop funding its parallel structures operating in Kosovo. “The sooner Serbia stops financing these structures, the faster the statute will be drafted,” Tahiri said.
Around 71% of Kosovars find the Association/Community damaging (Koha)
The Pristina-based Kosovo Centre for Security Studies published on Tuesday the results of a poll titled “The Public’s Perception on Foreign Policy and Dialogue with Serbia”, highlighting that around 71 percent of Kosovars find as very damaging the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities. “The lack of transparency during the process [dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade] and the decision-making ‘behind closed doors’ have created vacuum and room for misinterpretation and misuse of the content of agreements by the political elites in Kosovo and Serbia. This has also impeded many aspects of the implementation of agreements and it does not seem to have improved the lives of the people despite initial promises,” the report noted. Around 45 percent of respondents said Serbia is benefiting more from the process of talks in Brussels.
“Destination of church at University campus cannot be changed” (dailies)
Several dailies quote Dimitris Moschopoulos, advisor to the Kosovo government on cultural and religious heritage, as saying that the destination of the Serb church located on the Pristina University campus cannot be changed. “The area where the church was built is property of the Serb Orthodox Church. The church cannot be transformed into something else,” Moschopoulos said in a letter which was read during a debate in Pristina. The paper notes that Pristina Mayor, Shpend Ahmeti, said that the head of the Serb Orthodox Church in Kosovo, Sava Janjic, should have attended the debate. Ahmeti also said that during the process of applying for the legalization of buildings without permits, no one applied on behalf of the church which was built in the 1990s.
