Tirana based opinion writer for this news portal,  Mero Baze, writes that Kosovo faced on Tuesday one of the most violent days since June 1999. Protest, called by the opposition parties, escalated with violent actions against the police, state institutions and private businesses, after a climate of depression, economic stalemate and a six-month political crisis.

Many have criticized the violence of the protesters and the police, depending on their political positions. The most principled ones claimed that the protests darkened the image of Kosovo, while the most pragmatic ones claim that government deserved worse.

“As far as I am concerned, this was a good day for Kosovo. We saw a lively and angry society, infuriated by the political impotence of the government on delicate issues, such as Trepca and emotional issues, such as Jablanovic,” writes Baze. If these two reasons were the essence of the protest, they would have been harmful, because they would transform the protest from social-political to an ethnical one. If this was the case, they would serve as a favor to the government, notes Baze.

“I am prouder with this Kosovo, than with the other one that suffers and migrates through unknown borders and rivers, dying in the streets. The Kosovo which knows to protest at its own home and a government which is aware how far it can go on facing the angry citizens does not embarrass Kosovo. Kosovo’s image is only a debate in Pristina cafeterias, no one in the West feels bad that some glasses are broken and some tiles removed, they simply see how a new state reacts towards problems that it is facing.

The image of Kosovo state is not made by the violent protesters, but by the police who faced the battle with them. It is natural to have injuries during a clash, however at the end of the protest, no one was killed and there was no need for justifications as it happened in Sali Berisha’s primitive Albania. We have all seen the attacks on the Kosovo Police, how they were sieged and how they were often found between fires where one can lose patience, however, we did not see blood. Kosovo Police managed to be the guardian of its own state and it withstood a battle with angry citizens, by giving Kosovo credentials of a serious state, much more serious than Albania,” writes Baze.