UNMIK Media Observer, Afternoon Edition, January 3, 2024

Albanian Language Media:

Kosovo and Turkiye ready to expand relations in 2024 (media)
Haxhiu criticizes opposition, KPC and KJC: They oppose reforms (KSP)
Szunyog: Attack in Banjska turned all eyes to Kosovo (AP)
Less: Association, the only solution – Trump will return with idea for partition, now with backing from Europeans (Express)
Petritsch: Internal dialogue with Serbs in Kosovo, basis for normalization (RFE)
Krasniqi: Early elections in 2024, 2023 was lost year for Kosovo (media)
LDK MP: Kurti has postponed visa liberalization for six years (RTK)

Serbian Language Media:

Serbian Election Commission releases parliamentary election results (N1, Nova.rs)
Kurti for second time in last couple of days on Bujanska conference about unification of Kosovo with Albania (KoSSev)
Lajcak: We expect new local elections in north of Kosovo without further delay (Politika, Kosovo Online)
Brigadier says NATO, Serbia closer than people think (Demostat, N1, Danas)
Djilas for Politico: West should support values or say nothing (N1)
Dveri: National Gathering ceased to exist (RTS)
Protests over elections to continue in 2024 (N1)

Humanitarian/Development:

Christmas convoy in Kosovo concluded, ten tons of humanitarian aid distributed (Radio KIM, Euronews, media)

Albanian Language Media

Kosovo and Turkiye ready to expand relations in 2024 (media)

Kosovo and Turkiye have expressed their readiness for further deepening and expansion of bilateral relations in 2024, in a meeting between the Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti and the Turkish Ambassador to Kosovo, Sabri Tunc Angili.

‘With mutual greetings for the New Year 2004, the first meeting for this year, Prime Minister Kurti and Ambassador Angili began by reflecting on cooperation throughout 2023, especially in the field of defense, security and economy, and continued with plans and goals of partnership between the countries for the year we have just entered. Ambassador Angili congratulated the Prime Minister and the people of Kosovo for the liberalization of visas that came into effect on January 1”, the Prime Minister’s Office announced.

Kurti, according to the announcement, expressed his gratitude for Turkiye’s continuous support to Kosovo ‘and the willingness and will to further deepen and expand Kosovo-Turkiye bilateral relations,”

Haxhiu criticizes opposition, KPC and KJC: They oppose reforms (KSP)

Kosovo’s Minister of Justice, Albulena Haxhiu, said in an interview with the news agency that reforms in the judiciary are being opposed by the opposition, the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council and the Kosovo Judicial Council. She argued that the latest vacancies announced at the KPC reveal deals within the judicial system. “This has been going on every year. I believe this is how I will end my mandate as Minister of Justice, because the reforms that our ministry has initiated are not being supported by the Judicial Council and the Prosecutorial Council, especially the latter,” she said.

Haxhiu said that the law on the Prosecutorial Council is an important reform but that “the opposition has chosen to obstruct reforms in the judiciary”.

According to Haxhiu it is important for the Kosovo Assembly to adopt the Civil Code, “especially during the phase of membership in the Council of Europe”. “We have postponed [sending the law to the Assembly] for this year, namely we intended to proceed with the law last year, but we didn’t have the required number of votes in the Assembly. The idea is not to have another failure in the Assembly, because it would be a blow for both Kosovo and the government, as it is an important issue related to human rights … We don’t need to proceed with it without making sure that it will be adopted. I am certain that we will proceed with it soon and we will be successful in our efforts,” she added.

Haxhiu also claimed that opposition parties see the Constitutional Court of Kosovo as an ally. “It is very interesting how the opposition views the Constitutional Court as a savior not to implement reforms [in the judiciary],” she said.

Szunyog: Attack in Banjska turned all eyes to Kosovo (AP)

Head of the EU Office in Kosovo, Thomas Szunyog, said in an interview with the news website that the attack in Banjska in the north of Kosovo in September last year, which resulted in the killing of Kosovo police sergeant Afrim Bunjaku, turned all eyes to Kosovo and raised concerns among the international community about the security situation in the north.

He also said that EU member states are closely following the public discourse and the possibility of another attack against Kosovo.

“I am fully aware that the violent attack in Banjska raised the alarm being that the dimensions of the operation were unprecedented and the amount of ammunition and weapons confiscated were massive. In fact, the attack turned all eyes to Kosovo and raised concerns among the international community about the security situation in the north of Kosovo,” he said. “We also expect that all perpetrators are caught and brought immediately to justice and for Serbia to fully cooperate and take all necessary measures in this regard”.

Less: Association, the only solution – Trump will return with idea for partition, now with backing from Europeans (Express)

Timothy Less, associate at the Center for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge, said in an interview with the news website that the agreement from early next year has not resolved anything between Kosovo and Serbia and that there is a diminishing perspective for an eventual solution. He argued that the relations, which were supposed to be normalized after what was considered a historic agreement, became more antagonistic and the risk from an open conflict is now bigger than it was the previous year.

Less said that the Kurti-led government has successfully reduced the pressure to form the Association of Serb-majority municipalities “and has carried out pressure on the Kosovo Serbs, with some of them leaving. At the same time, the government has brought international sanctions against Kosovo and the possibility of an armed intervention by Serbia, which cannot be considered positive. One way to avoid these negative results would be to make concessions to the EU on the issue of autonomy for Serbs and ending police raids in the north of Kosovo, which the Serbs see as intimidating.”

According to Less, “Serbia’s final objective is to divide Kosovo along the Ibar River and an Association with a marked territory would represent a significant step in that respect”.

Less also predicts that Serbia will wait for international politics to be in its favor and that this is very likely to happen. He argues that at the end of this year Kosovo will be in a worse position because elections in Europe and those in the U.S. “will favor Serbia”. Less also says that if the polls are correct, Donald Trump will return to the White House together with the idea of a border redefinition between Kosovo and Serbia, and in the EU there will be changes which will lead to greater support for this option.

Petritsch: Internal dialogue with Serbs in Kosovo, basis for normalization (RFE)

Former European Union Special Representative for Kosovo, Diplomat Wolfgang Patritsch has said that the internal dialogue with the Serbs in Kosovo is the key to a stable solution with Serbia.

In an interview with Radio Free Europe, Petritsch said that he does not expect a substantial result in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia in 2024, due to the elections that will be held in the United States and the European Union.

In this regard, the Austrian diplomat hopes that the administration of the U.S. president, Joe Biden, will continue the leadership, because he believes that his team is committed to a fair solution.

Among other things, Petritsch said that this year's incident in Banjska, Kosovo should serve as a lesson for increased vigilance in the field of security, which will have priority in the coming year.

He called for progress in the dialogue process, on the grounds that any delay in the process risks worsening the situation.

Krasniqi: Early elections in 2024, 2023 was lost year for Kosovo (media)

The leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Memli Krasniqi is convinced that 2024 will be an election year in Kosovo.

In an interview for the end of the year with Ekonomia Online, he said that unfortunately 2023 is another lost year for Kosovo, as there is no progress in any of the sectors, due to the mistakes and incompetence of the Kurti government.

According to him, Kosovo has a foreign policy in "clinical death", there is stagnation in the economy, health is collapsing, as well as degradation in education and other fields. Krasniqi emphasized that the economic growth, which is predicted to be around 3.5 percent for 2023, is extremely small for a country like Kosovo with so many challenges, especially post-pandemic.

"It is smaller than the average economic growth during the first years after the war, when it was around 5 percent, and it was also during the biggest global financial crisis (2008)," Krasniqi said.

"Above all, under the Kurti government, for the first time something unthinkable has happened: Kosovo has received sanctions from the European Union, concrete punitive measures, suspension of around 300 million euros dedicated to Kosovo and its citizens, precisely because of the government and because of the stubbornness, mistakes and deceptions of the prime minister", he said

On the other hand said that government propaganda continues to be very active. "His (Kurti's) absurdities are extraordinary. A few days ago in December, they came out and said that Kosovo's economy is the third in Europe. Not even children can believe such a thing."

One of the main reasons for the imposition of sanctions, according to Krasniqi, was the "disloyalty" of the prime minister. "They agreed on something, and he didn't keep his word."

Krasniqi said that it is not clear to the citizens of Kosovo, nor to the international partners, whether Albin Kurti has accepted the Draft Status of the Association, whether he will approve it in the government and whether he will send it to the Constitutional Court for opinion.

"We have lost the respect of Kosovo's important partners precisely because of these reasons. Because people want to have predictability in relationships, and with Kurti they don't have that".

"I believe that this will also have an impact on the actions related to the early elections, which I am convinced that we will hold in 2024", he said.

Commenting on the survey published in December, where the ruling party still has great support, Krasniqi said ‘The only poll that counts is the poll of the ballot box and election day... If the prime minister really believes in such polls, if he really thinks that the people still continue to support him, I invite him to announce the elections as early as today’ he added that ‘in order to preserve Kurti's ego', the Assembly can be dissolved and not him resigning.

LDK MP: Kurti has postponed visa liberalization for six years (RTK)

Kosovo citizens can travel without visas in the Schengen area, except for Spain. However, the MP of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Hykmete Bajrami has stated that Kurti has postponed the liberalization of visas from 2017 to 2024.

“The fact that Kosovo is under sanctions shows the best Albin Kurti’s merits for liberalization of visas. However, he and LVV have a merit in terms of liberalization. They postponed them from 2017 to 2003,” Bajrami wrote on Facebook.

Serbian Language Media

Serbian Election Commission releases parliamentary election results (N1, Nova.rs)

Serbian Republic Election Commission (RIK) released unofficial final results of the December 17 parliamentary elections and two rounds of reruns at a small number of polling stations, N1 reports citing Nova.rs.

According to the RIK portal, all the votes were counted at the country’s 8,273 polling stations and the results updated on the portal as they came in.

The portal shows that the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won 46.75 of the votes cast or 1,783,701 votes followed by the Serbia Against Violence opposition coalition which won 23.66 percent or 902,450 votes.

Third in line is the election ticket headed by Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) leader Ivica Dacic which won 6.55 percent or 249,916 votes. The opposition NADA coalition won 5.02 percent or 191,431 votes. The election ticket headed by Branimir Nestorovic won 4.69 percent or 178,830 votes.

All the other parties and election tickets won less than the 3 percent minimum of votes needed to win seats in parliament. The threshold for national minority parties to win seats is calculated differently.

Kurti for second time in last couple of days on Bujanska conference about unification of Kosovo with Albania (KoSSev)

KoSSev portal writes today that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti for the second time in less than a week recalled the Bujanska conference as a symbol of Albanians to self-determination, respectively unification of Kosovo with Albania.

Ahead of New Year’s Eve celebration Kurti spoke about his meeting with historians and researchers of various generations to discuss about “significant event for Kosovo contemporary history”, while yesterday he recalled the 80th anniversary of Bujanska conference, which took place on January 2, 1944 in Bujana in northern Albania, the portal recalls. Speaking of details about the event, Kurti also said that back then one of the most important decisions of the XX century for the political destiny of Albanians, and not only those from Kosovo, was made.

“Part of this resolution was a statement that: ‘Kosovo and Dukagjini area (Metohija, ed.) is a province inhabited by majority Albanian population, who, as always and today, wish to join Albania”, Kurti said.

He added that "this formulation expressed the political will of the Kosovo Albanians based on the people's right to self-determination, which was guaranteed by the Allies in the Atlantic Charter".

Serbian historian Petar Ristanovic in his book on this conference and related resolution said that Communist Party of Yugoslavia Central Committee already in March 1994 suspended those decisions, noting in a letter that delineation between Yugoslavia and Albania will be discussed only upon victory over occupiers. It was also said that the decision of the party leadership for Kosovo and Metohija from November 1943 to use the term Dukadjini for Metohija, was dismissed, as it would emphasize its Albanian character only.

Lajcak: We expect new local elections in north of Kosovo without further delay (Politika, Kosovo Online)

We expect that new local elections in the north of Kosovo will be called without further delay, and it is important that the process towards holding new elections for mayors in four municipalities finally started with the establishment of initiative groups of Serbs from Kosovo earlier in December, EU special envoy for Belgrade-Pristina talks Miroslav Lajcak said in an interview for Belgrade-based Politika daily over the weekend.

Lajcak opined that re-establishment of fully representative local self-governments in the north of Kosovo is necessary for the de-escalation of the situation on the ground and for the wider normalization process. It is also necessary for the continuation of the establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities, he added.

"I am sorry that the registration of initiative groups initially faced unexpected administrative obstacles, but since then I have received assurances from Kosovo that these problems will be resolved soon so that the collection of signatures for the impeachment of the mayor can begin immediately", he said. Lajcak also said that the situation in northern Kosovo is fragile, and that we cannot simultaneously have escalation of tensions and progress in the normalization of relations. He pointed out that dialogue is the only platform for solving all open issues and potential sources of friction.

In relation to Politika question on Pristina’s ban on importing Serbian goods, expropriation of privately owned properties in northern Kosovo, arrests, intimidation and police raids there and whether he perceives it as an obstacle to the continuation of the dialogue Lajcak responded that the EU expects “both sides to act in the spirit of dialogue and reconciliation by their rhetoric and acts. The situation in the north of Kosovo is sensitive/fragile and as I said many times we cannot simultaneously have escalation or tensions and progress in normalization of relations. The EU will continue to carefully monitor the situation whether the legal processes and the rule of law are fully respected. Everybody agrees that citizens in the north of Kosovo, regardless if they are from majority or non-majority communities should enjoy benefits of the rule of law and good governance. Many of these issues would be channeled and they would be managed through Association/Community. This is one more reason why it is urgent to establish Association/Community without delay (…)”.

Asked about police incursion into Rajska Banja spa complex in Banjska village and unilateral confiscation of property built with the funds of the Serbian Government, perceived as strategic investment to help local population in the north, Lajcak responded that as far as this issue is concerned, we are getting informed about the case to establish all the facts. “However, what I just said is equally valid. Local/municipal matters should be managed by locally elected officials”.

Brigadier says NATO, Serbia closer than people think (Demostat, N1, Danas)

The head of NATO’s Military Liaison Office (MLO) in Belgrade, Italian Brigadier General Giampiero Romano said that Serbians aren’t aware of everything that has been achieved in partnership with the Alliance.

“I think the citizens of Serbia are not fully aware of how much we work on and achieve through our partnership”, Romano is quoted as telling the Demostat portal.

He recalled that Serbia is in NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and is involved in the Science for Peace and Security program. The Brigadier said that NATO and Serbia have conducted more than 1,000 joint activities over the past 17 years, both military and otherwise.

According to Romano, a stable Kosovo is crucially important to the stability of the region and security of the Alliance, adding that peace and stability in Kosovo have been a priority for NATO for more than 20 years. “We continue providing support to a safe and secure environment in Kosovo”, he said.

He said that scientists from NATO member states and Serbia have worked together on a large number of projects, sharing experiences and expanding limits through technological and scientific achievements to bring a better and safer future for the benefit of everyone.

“Serbia and NATO are much closer than it seems at first glance”, Romano said, adding that Serbia is a respected, important and valued NATO partner.

Djilas for Politico: West should support values or say nothing (N1)

Serbian opposition leader Dragan Djilas wrote in an op-ed piece for the Politico portal that Western governments should say nothing if they can’t call for a repeat of the December 17 elections.

The opposition has been protesting for several weeks following the alleged election fraud committed at elections for the Serbian parliament, Vojvodina provincial assembly, Belgrade City Assembly and local administrations in a number of places.

“If Western democratic governments find it too difficult to live up to the values they espouse and call for repeat elections, then maybe it would be better if they just said nothing at all”, Djilas wrote. He said that Western supported for democratic changes in Serbia under the Milosevic regime “seems to have disappeared and recalled that Prime Minister Ana Brnabic thanked Russian security services for warning Belgrade about the protests which she claimed were orchestrated by “some Western services”, that Vucic briefed Russia’s ambassador in Belgrade about the protest and that US Ambassador Christopher Hill condemned what he called the violence and vandalism against state institutions at the protests.

Humanitarian/Development

Christmas convoy in Kosovo concluded, ten tons of humanitarian aid distributed (Radio KIM, Euronews, media)

Traditional Christmas convoy of French humanitarian organization Solidarity for Kosovo which arrived in Gracanica on December 26, concluded yesterday in Novo Brdo, Radio KIM reports.

Over the last seven days volunteers distributed ten tons of humanitarian aid including school materials and toys for children, new firewood and electric stoves, and household furniture dedicated to the socially vulnerable families, the organization said in a statement. French humanitarians visited a total of 18 villages in Kosovo Pomoravlje region, Novo Brdo area and central Kosovo.

This is the 51 convoy that arrived in Kosovo since 2005 when a humanitarian organization Solidarity for Kosovo had been established in France, the statement added.