LOCAL PRESS

Nikolic to hold consultations with opposition on Monday (Novosti/Beta)

President Nikolic will schedule consultations with all other electoral lists that entered parliament on Monday, Novosti learns at parties’ leaderships. According to this information, the President will talk, most probably according to the order at the elections, with party representatives for around thirty minutes, so Nikolic is expected to assign on Monday evening the mandate to Vucic for the formation of a new government as he is the only one who has the parliamentary majority.

Serb Radical Party (SRS) party leader Vojislav Seselj will not take part in consultations on a new government with President Nikolic. The Radicals will be represented on Monday by party officials Nemanja Sarovic and Natasa Jovanovic, Beta reported.

Vucic, Chepurin discuss cooperation, sovereignty (Tanjug)

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic received on Thursday Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Chepurin to discuss the bilateral relations, economic cooperation and protection of sovereignty.

Prime Minister Vucic and Ambassador Chepurin described the political relations between the two countries as excellent, and underscored they would continue to cooperate to ensure the protection of Serbia’s sovereignty, the Prime Minister’s press office said in a release.

Vucic and Chepurin also considered ways to improve the economic cooperation, with a special emphasis on Russian companies’ assistance after the completion of the restructuring process for big state-owned enterprises such as chemicals maker MSK, fertilizer maker Azotara and petrochemicals maker Petrohemija, reads the release.

Kozarev: Justice on FSS’s side, we are optimistic (Tanjug)

The deputy head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Dusan Kozarev has expressed confidence that the decisions in favor of Kosovos admission to UEFA and FIFA will be annulled because the truth, justice and the law are on the side of the Football Association of Serbia (FSS).

He also said that he is optimistic about the matter since Kosovo has still not been granted a spot in the qualifications for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In collaboration with renowned international law firms, the FSS is seeking to annul the decisions, Kozarev told reporters in Gracanica during FC Red Star Belgrade’s visit to the Kosovo municipality on Thursday.

“The FSS has filed a lawsuit with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), 10 days have been requested to amend it and we will do that. We firmly believe in truth, justice and the law, which makes us optimistic about CAS annulling the decisions on the admission of Kosovo,” Kozarev said.

NATO: “Western Balkans is important to us” (Danas)

Western Balkans is of importance for NATO. Some states in the region have already joined our Alliance, and some are aspiring to become members, Danas was told at NATO headquarters in Brussels on the occasion of the Kosovo media reports that Kosovo has been preparing for membership in this military alliance. Speaking about the Balkans, Danas’ interlocutors also remind that NATO foreign ministers hosted yesterday Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic on the occasion of the signing on the Protocol on Accession, and that NATO Secretary General had stated that “this was a clear signal that NATO continues to help in building security in the Western Balkans”. NATO representatives didn’t wish to directly answer whether they expect Kosovo to commence eventual integration into the Alliance in the near future, but recalled that Kosovo is not a candidate for membership at the moment. “We fully support the increasing normalization in Kosovo. We fully support the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue that is a true step forward for regional peace and stability. This is an opportunity to turn a page and create a better future for all in the region. We continue to encourage all sides to engage in political dialogue and work together towards a safer Kosovo in order to improve life of all those living there,” said NATO.

Is Washington using Kosovo to push Serbia toward NATO? (Tanjug)

The green light of the U.S. Congress to the U.S. administration to include Kosovo in Partnership for Peace is part of NATO’s strategy. This strategy means “including the whole region of the Western Balkans”, and would represent “a specific political and security pressure on Serbia to also join”, Tanjug has quoted diplomats and experts as saying. “Serbia would in that case be ‘surrounded’ by NATO on all sides, but our country, as diplomat Zoran Milivojevic stressed, would be able to continue the current policy of neutrality even under such circumstances,” Tanjug reported. Milivojevic recalled that Serbia also has agreements with the military alliance that allow full cooperation, but do not mean membership. Milivojevic explained that Western power centers, primarily in Washington, are preparing Kosovo for the Partnership for Peace program so they could include Kosovo in its network in the Western Balkans, “after which Serbia, with Macedonia and B&H, would become surrounded by members of the alliance”. “”The fact that the U.S. Congress launched this topic and gave the signal to the administration to work on it, shows it is in the interests of NATO, the U.S. and (their) allies to include Kosovo, due to its geostrategic and geopolitical position,” said Milivojevic. He then noted that Montenegro just signed a protocol on accession to NATO, and added that “only Serbia, which is militarily neutral, and Macedonia remain outside of NATO – whose entry into the alliance at this point is prevented by the dispute with Greece over its name – as well as B&H, which is ‘blocked’ by the RS”. “Such an environment means a certain political and other pressure on Serbia to join the organization, but Serbia can continue to have full cooperation with NATO without membership in the organization, like Austria and Finland, which are integrated into Euro-Atlantic structures, cooperate with NATO at the highest level, but are not members,” said this diplomat. According to Milivojevic, “Kosovo in NATO should not be a destabilizing factor, but the very fact it is being included with an unresolved status and against the will of Serbia represents some political and security risk and a political and security threat”. He pointed out that Serbia “should not have security problems because it is not in conflict with NATO, nor its member states, and, when it comes to NATO, there is no interest to bring Serbia’s security into question”. The inclusion of Kosovo in NATO would make a new precedent, because Kosovo is not an internationally recognized state or a UN member, but is under UN’s protectorate, said Tanjug. Milivojevic, however, believes it is “not unrealistic to expect some kind of formula that would include Kosovo artificially into Partnership for Peace, since this is about a broader strategy that has profound security and political meanings”.”We’ve already seen such a scenario in the case of FIFA and UEFA,” Milivojevic said, adding, “it certainly should not be possible while (UNSC) Resolution 1244 is in force and while the status of Kosovo has not been resolved”. For Kosovo to become a member of NATO, it must first have its own army, i.e. transform the current security force into an army, said Belgrade Center for Security Policy NGO researcher Isidora Stakic. “Obviously, the latest news tells us that NATO has given the green light for such a thing. It will definitely happen in the future, it has been talked about for several years,” said she, adding that “the process of transferring KFOR’s powers to the new army of Kosovo will take a certain period of time that will not be short”. Therefore, Stakic believes that NATO will continue to be a major military actor in Kosovo and underlines that “the army of Kosovo, as such, will not pose a security threat to Serbia”. “The threat will be a sharpening of rhetoric which will follow and which will lead to new tensions, and they will slow down and hamper normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, (cause) new ethnic tensions, a new impetus to nationalist rhetoric,” said Stakic.  She added that, “according to some estimates”, Kosovo’s army “will be smaller than one brigade of the Serbian Army – and therefore will not pose a security threat to Serbia”. “Politicians are going to present it as a threat because such narratives do well among a large part of the population and it will be used to win political points and to win over a part of the electorate,” said Stakic. “A similar situation happened over a military agreement between the Albanian Army and the Kosovo Security Force, which was widely seen as a security threat for allegedly creating a ‘Greater Albania’, but did not have any basis in reality,” Sekulic said.  SNS official Milovan Drecun, who chaired the Committee on Kosovo and Metohija in the previous composition of the Serbian parliament, sees another angle to it all, Tanjug said it its report. He told the agency that Pristina’s goal is to “divert the attention of the Albanian public in Kosovo and Metohija from the problems in the province, the difficult situation due to high unemployment, corruption, crime, a lack of any economic perspective, and the extremely low level of respect for human rights of non-Albanians, of Serbs in particular”.
According to him, Pristina “constantly raises unexpected, unjustified and unrealistic demands before both Belgrade and the international community in order to run away from the problems and focus the attention of Albanians in another direction”. Drecun said it was particularly interesting that Pristina thinks NATO will accept it into its ranks “when that alliance’s officials keep saying that their forces are in KFOR on the basis of Resolution 1244, which in no case either recognizes, or foresees the creation of a state of Kosovo”.

Criminal charges filed against 3 members of election board (RTS/Tanjug)

The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) would press charges against three members of the election board at the poll Lesak 9 in Leposavic, Kosovo, due to irregularities, chairman of RIK Dejan Djurdjevic announced at the session of this institution. Previously, a member of the commission Ivan Sebek requested pressing charges against the three members of the election board in Lesak because, after the votes were counted it was registered that one party did not get a single vote, but the later counting determined that it actually won 60 votes at the poll. RIK enacted the Report on Finished Elections on Thursday, which formally finished the election process.

REGIONAL PRESS

Outvoting instead of consensus (Srna)

Mladen Ivanic, the Republika Srpska member of the B&H Presidency, considers devastating the decision of Velimir Jukic, the head of the state Agency for Statistics, on a common data processing program for the population census, which was made without the approval of the entity statistics bureaus. Ivanic claims that this is yet another attempt to introduce outvoting in the country. Ivanic has told Srna that it is absolutely clear such a census will not have any legitimacy in B&H, since, according to the disputed decision, 196,000 disputed census forms will be treated as residents. “We again have outvoting being introduced in B&H instead of consensus, and again some sort of a coalition of the Bosnik and Croat political representatives, with a minor support of international institutions,” said Ivanic. By this decision, Ivanic claims, the census again has the status of a key political topic and the results will definitely become a key topic as well. This is not good for the long-term future of B&H, especially for the realistic application of the census, said Ivanic. “It’s a terrible mistake. There should have been much more willingness and patience for talks and compromises than what has been done in this matter. We are yet to see the negative impact of this,” said Ivanic, adding that the level of mutual trust in B&H after this decision is possibly the lowest in the past few years. Agency for Statistics

There is no approval of entities for publishing population census results (Srna)

Republika Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic said in Sarajevo that she will inform members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) of the fact that the Entities did not give their approval for the methodology for the 2013 population census data processing and that the RS institutions will take a stance on this issue. “I will say that this is not a result of an agreement but of imposition or unilateral decision making. We feel this is not fair and it is not good,” Cvijanovic told reporters prior to a meeting with members of AFET, adding that RS Presented its objections by way of its representatives. She said that she regrets that the issue of a population census took this direction and that there were machinations in the population census. “It is impossible that there are 20-30 people in one household or at one address. It seems that this was not enough, and those who are not resident anywhere in Europe, are residents in B&H,” Cvijanovic said. She asked what the purpose of a population census is, if it is defective in such a way and if deviations go up to 10%. “This is an important statistical document which should serve for planning, and it has an error of 10%. Errors must be minimal. I am afraid that here, the error will be maximal,” Cvijanovic said. She said that she will speak with AFET members about the reform agenda, but that she does not expect anything special from today’s meeting, except that they will exchange opinions. Cvijanovic said that when it comes to a coordination mechanism, the job has not been done. “I expect that we will come to an end in the coming period. I expect more understanding so that an agreement would be reached which would reflect constitutional competencies. There is no progress without it. We cannot pretend, we must recognize what competencies the Constitution gave us and which are our tasks. The problem can be solved if there is a good will,” Cvijanovic says. According to her, they will also discuss social-economic issues, plans and cooperation between governments. The meeting will also be attended by Federation of B&H Prime Minister Fadil Novalic who did not give a statement to the press.

Popic: Adopted decision on the processing of the data is not correct (Klix)

After finally reaching an agreement for publishing the results of population census in B&H, deputy director of the Agency for Statistics of B&H Miljan Popic said that he thinks that the adopted decision on the processing of the data is not correct. Popic disagrees on the matter of the adopted program of data processing, emphasizing that this is a repetition of attitudes. He believes that by using this type of processing, we will receive incorrect data and that the Law of Census will not be respected. At the press conference he said that the Agency for Statistics will violate Article 7, which defines who are residents of B&H, and that also Article 36 will not be respected, which gave the Agency task of using all available databases to come to accurate data. “In this way, we will change the content of the census and then will remain a dilemma of who is responsible for this,” said Popic. He emphasized that the control list will prove that there is deviation of over 10 %, which is much more than the international standard. He said it was not true that the census of B&H cost 50 million BAM, and revealed the information that the census cost 35 million BAM. “Even if the results did not get published, census would not be wasted as well as the money. These are valid data and they apply for 10 years until the next census,” said Popic. At the end, he stated again that „these are incorrect data and that we will not have accurate data in the process of EU Integration.”

Dodik: I do not interfere with operations of RTRS (Srna)

RS President Milorad Dodik said that he does not interfere with the operations of the Republika Srpska Radio-TV (RTRS), as some want to impute. Dodik said that the RTRS is an independent public broadcaster which has its own approach to different issues and personalities and that he respects the freedom of the media. Commenting on the call by B&H Security Minister Dragan Mektic to him to stop propaganda by way of RTRS, Dodik said it is the wrong impression that he manages any operations of this media outlet. Noting that he tried to contact Mektic, but that he does not want to speak with him, Dodik said that it is high time everyone sat and organized a stable media presentation of positions and information. He added that a call by the B&H Minister of Security to citizens to hit the streets to protest reflects the situation in the society, and added that he is proud that the gatherings passed peacefully. Dodik said that it was the goal of the ruling coalition’s rally not to allow messages which the opposition wanted to be sent from Banja Luka, and also not to allow demoralization of its membership. “We demonstrated that we have greater abilities and better organization,” said Dodik, who is also the president of the SNSD. He said that he spoke with opposition representatives prior to the protest and rally and that they agreed that the gatherings should pass peacefully. Dodik said that he then invited SDS leader Mladen Bosic to come to the rally of the ruling coalition to speak, but that he asked that he also be allowed to address citizens at the opposition protest. “Had they done that, they would have given a strong contribution to the democratization of RS. Mr Bosic was not interested in this, but there was no lack of dialogue in these complex situations,” Dodik said. He feels that the protest and the rally were not needed, but that these gatherings showed that RS is able to secure such gatherings by way of its bodies, such as police, which acted professionally towards the participants of both gatherings who safely returned to their homes.

Talks about political and economic situation (Srna)

RS Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic and the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to B&H Petr Ivantsov spoke about the political and economic situation in B&H, plans for the future and ways to plan future departures of RS representatives to a forum in St. Petersburg and all other events which firmly connect the governments of RS and Russia. “It was an opportunity to inform the Ambassador of the spheres of interest of the RS Government, important laws and of what we intend to do in the future,” Cvijanovic told reporters after a meeting with Ivantsov in Istocno Sarajevo. Ivantsov said that RS and the Russian Federation have many joint projects. “We are working on the prospects for increasing the export of agricultural products from RS to Russia. A delegation of St. Petersburg will come again at the end of this month or the beginning of the next, and we will discuss a cooperation agreement,” Ivantsov said. He said that the Russian government expects RS representatives to attend the international forum in St. Petersburg. “We have many joint projects which serve the interests of both sides,” the Russian Ambassador said.

Results of Bosnian population census to create new political crisis (Hina)

The publication of the results of the population census could raise political tensions in B&H as RS, its Serb entity, has announced that it will neither recognize them nor participate in their processing, Bosnian media said on Thursday. RS President Milorad Dodik said this was “a blow to B&H”. “We won’t participate in that nor publish anything,” Nezavisne novine quoted him as saying. He said two years of negotiations aimed at agreeing a methodology for processing the results had been wasted. He said this was such a serious crisis that the B&H parliament and Council of Ministers should discuss it at extraordinary sessions. Council of Ministers Chairman Denis Zvizdic, on the other hand, said this was a positive decision of outstanding importance for the country. “That’s very good news,” he told Dnevni avaz, adding that the publication of the results will remove a big obstacle to B&H’s European integration and help to plan the country’s development strategy. The 2013 population census was the first since the 1992-95 war and is expected to show its consequences. Disputes over the publication of its results were a continuation of political battles over the country’s ethnic make-up waged between 1995 and 2013. Contentious was the status of thousands who were driven out of their homes during the war, primarily on RS territory, and whose post-war return was made difficult or prevented in various ways. Numerous are the cases in which returnees somehow won their property back, even rebuilding houses, but could not get a job, which forced them to work abroad and occasionally come to their homes in B&H. RS is against granting them the status of permanent residents and it turns out that this applies to nearly 200,000 people who can significantly affect the country’s ethnic make-up. After the October 2013 census, it was only said that B&H has 3.79 million inhabitants. Exact data is expected to be published by July 1, the final deadline for it. Dnevni avaz quoted statistician Hasan Zolic as saying that, according to the methodology agreed yesterday, Bosnia has a population of 3,520,000, including 1,764,000 Bosniaks (50.1%), 1,085,000 Serbs (30.8%), 543,000 Croats (15.41%), and 129,000 inhabitants (3.68%) of other ethnicities. According to the previous census from 1991, B&H had a little over 4.3 million inhabitants, including a little over 1.9 million Muslims, now called Bosniaks, (43.37%), about 1.3 million Serbs (31.21%), about 760,000 Croats (17.38%), and 242,000 Yugoslavs (5.45%).

Montenegro hopes to join NATO by mid-2017 despite Russian concerns (Srna)

Montenegro expects to join NATO by the middle of 2017, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said Thursday, as his country and the military alliance signed an accession protocol despite Russian concerns over the move. “It is our expectation that the allies would finalize ratification as soon as possible, so that, in mid next year, Montenegro would become a fully-fledged member of the alliance,” Djukanovic told foreign ministers and other representatives from the 28 NATO member states at a meeting in Brussels. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg spoke of an “historic step”, coming 10 years after the Western Balkan country achieved independence. “Membership will give Montenegro the ability to help shape NATO policy. It will bring more stability and security to the region, therefore promoting prosperity,” Stoltenberg said. “It is important that NATO is an alliance that is open to new members if they want to live up to the obligations and the values that NATO stands for,” Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen added. “We think it’s great to enlarge the family.” But Russia is expected to retaliate against the move, with high-ranking lawmaker Viktor Ozerov on Thursday saying there will be an “appropriate response”. Montenegro – a historical ally – does not pose a military danger, but NATO’s eastward expansion threatens the national security of Russia, the head of its upper house of parliament’s defense and security committee said. Djukanovic said polls in his country show that there is more support for NATO membership than opposition. When asked whether he thinks that a referendum should be conducted on the accession, the prime minister said that question would be up to the parliament that takes power after elections in October. “The integration processes of our country are unstoppable and there is no alternative,” Djukanovic added. “It’s a future that has started and a future that we shall pursue.” He pledged to continue implementing reforms. For his part, Stoltenberg said he would like to see Montenegro make more progress on enforcing the rule of law, fighting corruption and modernizing defense institutions. It would be the third nation from the Western Balkans to join the military alliance, after Albania and Croatia. Montenegro will, as of Thursday, participate in the alliance’s meetings as an observer, until all NATO nations ratify the accession protocol. It would then become the 29th member of the alliance. The country is also working on joining the European Union, but that process is expected to take several more years. Djukanovic said Montenegro has in 10 years gone from being “one of the most underdeveloped countries” in the former Yugoslavia to being “at the doorstep to NATO as one of the most developed countries in the region”.

Amendments adopted: Abolished people will be personally able to demand withdrawal of abolition from President (MIA)

Macedonian parliament on Thursday afternoon as part of the 102nd session, with 63 votes in favor, with no abstentions and against, passed the Law on Amending the Law on Pardons, which gives the President the opportunity to revoke a pardon without a procedure for pardon within 30 days of the adoption of this law, and the President is not obliged to explain his decision. The MPs from SDSM and DPA did not participate in the discussion. With the amendment of this law, the person who faces a final decision on pardon shall be entitled to submit an application for the annulment of his pardon to the President of the Republic and the president shall, within 30 days of the submission of the request, annul the adopted decision. Lawmakers passed a law for the protection of the privacy in a shortened procedure, which regulates the privacy of the Macedonian citizens guaranteed by the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the materials arising from the unlawful interception of communications performed between 2008 and 2015. The law establishes a prohibition on having, processing, and publishing of materials that violate the privacy of personal and family life. The law establishes a prohibition of possession, processing, publication and disposal in any way with materials derived from the unlawful interception of communications carried out between 2008 and 2015, including their use and disposal in the electoral process, political and other purposes and procedures.

Poposki: EU sees latest steps as encouraging (Telegraf.mk)

Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki met with European enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn in Brussels on Thursday evening. Following the meeting, Poposki told the MIA correspondent that the latest developments in Macedonia, where the parliament re­-convened, canceled the early elections planned for 5 June, and opened way to annul the President’s pardons, are seen as encouraging by the Union. “We had a very open meeting with Hahn. We focused on what are the main priorities at this moment and we agreed that there are several steps undertaken in the past days that are leading in a proper direction. This is an encouragement of sorts that the European Commission will maintain its recommendation for Macedonia to open accession talks. More work needs to be done in the coming period and that will be our focus ­ through reforms to persuade our partners in the European Union that it is important to keep Macedonia on the agenda,” Poposki said. The Foreign Minister added that the steps planned in the coming period will help trace Macedonia’s road toward the Euro-­Atlantic integrations, and expressed hope that there will a clear signal that Macedonia’s future in Europe is guaranteed and accession talks will begin as soon as possible. EU was critical of the presidential pardons, and of the possibility to hold elections in which three of the four largest parties announced that they will not take part. With the return of the parliament, the elections have been canceled, and the President has an option to revoke his pardons.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Inzko: Hofer is not welcome in Sarajevo (Der Standard, 16 May 2016)

“It is completely irresponsible and unacceptable. Reckless calls from outside, regarding the referendum in B&H go in a completely wrong direction and are unwise,” said Inzko for the Viennese daily Der Standard. High Representative to B&H Valentin Inzko in an interview for the Vienna daily Der Standard criticizes the policy by right-wing Freedom Party candidate for the president of Austria, Norbert Hofer leads towards B&H. Hofer, undoubted winner of recently held first round of the presidential elections, during last year’s meeting with Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik in Vienna, among other things, said that he “100 percent” supports the efforts of RS  in terms of their own self-determination in the future. Despite RS being a part of B&H, under Dayton Peace Agreement and the fact that its secession would be contrary to international law, Hofer said, “Something that does not belong together, cannot grow together.” He also asked of his compatriot, the High Representative Inzko, to break down B&H’s sovereignty as soon as possible. On the other hand, Inzko responded that what Hofer propagates would destroy the State of B&H. “The unilateral support to only one group of peoples would destroy carefully constructed balance and could lead toward further tensions, and therefore new migration tides, even toward Austria.” Potential Austrian President, with such a policy “will continue to be welcome in Banja Luka, but not in the capital of B&H – Sarajevo,” said Inzko. “Austria is a welcomed partner, and the biggest investor in the Balkans, because of its balanced foreign policy. Unilateral moves may harm our reputation,” concluded Inzko.

Montenegro set to become 29th member of NATO (politico, by Florian Eder, 19 May 2016)

Prime Minister Milo Đukanović says full membership could happen within a year.

Montenegrin is rarely among the languages needed at NATO press conferences, but it was on Thursday after Prime Minister Milo Đukanović signed a protocol on the country’s accession to the alliance. Full membership is set to follow and Đukanović said he’s optimistic it will happen soon. “I believe this will be possible within a year,” he said. The tiny Balkan country on the Adriatic Sea, which was bombed by NATO warplanes 16 years ago and gained independence from Serbia a decade ago, now has a seat in all the alliance’s bodies. It can participate in all high-level meetings as an observer without the power to vote until the accession protocol is ratified by all 28 member state parliaments. The process is expected to take up to two years. NATO extended an invitation for Montenegro to become a full member in December despite Russian warnings against doing so. Russia announced “counter measures” and has bitterly criticized Podgorica for its decision to join the alliance. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called Russia’s anger and threats unjustified and said NATO expansion was aimed at keep the Western Balkan region stable after decades of war and tensions. NATO’s hope is that Montenegro’s membership can show that the Western Balkans belong to Europe and that the alliance is keeping its doors open — at relatively low political cost in relation to Moscow. Montenegro is a country of 625,000 with an army of 2,000 soldiers and quite a different country than Ukraine or Georgia, which in both geographic and military terms could seriously ignite Russian anger should they ever be invited to join the alliance. On Thursday, the accession protocol was signed by 28 foreign ministers of an alliance that Stoltenberg twice called “the most successful in history.” Stoltenberg refrained from “sitting in Brussels and giving parliaments advice,” but said he hoped for a swift ratification process in the member countries: “I expect soon to see 29 flags flying outside NATO’s headquarters,” he told reporters. Đukanović denied there could be hurdles in the ratification process such as the recent referendum in the Netherlands where voters turned down an EU trade agreement with Ukraine.

Refugees tell of being pushed back into Greece from Balkans (AP, by Costas Kantouris, 20 May 2016)

IDOMENI – Anwar Ismail Murad passed almost effortlessly along what has become known as the Balkan route, heading north from Greece to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, through Serbia, Croatia and on to Slovenia. He reached there on February 14, when the border was still open, but that’s where his dream abruptly died. Slovenia denied the 19-year-old Yazidi from Sinjar in Iraq entry, citing a lack of documents even though four countries before had allowed him passage. Murad says authorities took him and others to a hotel near the border where they spent two days, before putting them onto a bus and sending them back to Croatia. From then on, against all expectations — and against official policy — Murad found himself kicked back across nearly all the borders he had passed through. “Just think that my friends passed a few hours earlier than me and now they’re in Germany,” he says wistfully, sitting in the sprawling refugee camp of Idomeni, on the Greek-FYROM border, where thousands of refugees and other migrants have been stranded for at least two months since the borders definitively closed in early March. As Balkan countries stopped accepting migrants crossing through their land borders, those who were on the route say they were the victims of countries desperate to get rid of those trapped by the new rules. Balkan countries along the route say they do not force potential asylum-seekers back across the border they just came from. But Murad’s case is by no means the only one. About 54,000 people are currently stranded in Greece, after the European Union and Turkey reached a deal designed to stem the flow of refugees into Europe’s prosperous heartland. Under the deal, new arrivals on Greek islands after March 20 face being returned to Turkey unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece. The vast majority of those in Idomeni and elsewhere in Greece never made it any further. But some say they were forced back, mainly through holes in the border fence with FYROM but also from further north — and show documents to back up their stories. Others even say they were sent to Greece despite bypassing it originally, having passed from Turkey through Bulgaria to Serbia. Mohamad al-Baghdady, 33, from Syria’s contested town of Deir el-Zour, said he crossed the Greek-FYROM border with his wife and daughters, 3-year-old Line and 10-month old Bailsane, on March 3, just before the borders shut. They stayed in a FYROM refugee camp for just over a month, he said, before FYROM authorities destroyed their registration documents and pushed them back into Greece, through the fence FYROM erected along parts of its southern border. “We didn’t want to go back, but the police put us on a truck and drove us to the border with Greece. They opened a hole in the fence and pushed us through. It was 2:30 in the morning,” al-Baghdady said. To prove they were there, his wife, Kamar Darwish, 29, pulls out a handful of food coupons from the FYROM camp, notes with the names and telephone numbers of doctors there for their children, and FYROM currency. “If there was just one square meter that was safe in Syria, just one square meter, we would have stayed there, we wouldn’t have come here and gone through this hardship,” al-Baghdady said. About another 30 Syrians who had been with the family that night were also in Idomeni, pitching their tents nearby. Darwish said the family told FYROM authorities they wanted to apply for asylum. “But they told us ‘there is no asylum in FYROM. This is not Europe.” She still doesn’t understand why they were returned to Greece. “Everything was OK, our papers and everything.” FYROM authorities denied claims that migrants have been forced back into Greece. “We categorically reject allegations that migrants have been pushed through the fence back to Greece,” FYROM police spokesman Toni Angelovski told the AP. “We also reject claims that migrants have not been allowed to apply for asylum.”

Further south, in the Petra refugee camp at the foot of Mount Olympus, a group of about 30 Yazidis say they had chosen an alternative route, using smugglers to get to Serbia through Bulgaria. They reached the Serbo-Croatian border in February, they say, but were denied entry. Then, inexplicably to them, Serb authorities sent them south to FYROM, from where they were pushed into Greece. Serbia denies any organized attempts to send people back to FYROM. But officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, said some individual cases could have happened. Dakhwas Al Hasan, 25, and Sarrad Shakir, 19, both from Mosul in Iraq, undertook the journey along with 14 others. Al Hasan said they crossed the Iraqi-Turkish border on January 23, staying in Turkey for about 25 days before crossing into Bulgaria. They walked for three days before reaching the capital, Sofia, and then heading into Serbia. Once in Serbia, they received registration documents and were put on a train to the Croatian border. But Al Hasan said Croatian authorities wouldn’t let them through without registration documents from Greece. They spent five days in a camp near the border, where they were beaten by Afghans and Iranians because they were Yazidi. “Then the Serb police put us onto buses and drove us to the Serbian-Macedonian border,” he said. After two days stuck in no-man’s land between Serbia and FYROM, FYROM authorities put them into a camp and a few days later “they led us to the fence near Idomeni, and pushed us through a hole into Greece. Dilshad Omer, an 18-year-old from Dohuk, Iraq, now lives in the Petra camp with his mother, three sisters and four brothers. They also went through Bulgaria, he said, although his group of 23 people spent 11 days in jail there before reaching Serbia. He displays a photograph on his mobile phone of his Serbian registration document, which he says Serb authorities took off him and ripped up while sending the family back to the FYROM border, putting them on buses at 3 a.m. Eventually they too were taken to the border fence with Greece, Omer said. Al-Hasan still dreams of reaching Germany, where his sister and her family now live. While others have given up on the legal process and are seeking out smugglers to complete their journey, he still has hope. “We want to go to Germany legally,” he says. “And so, we wait.”

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