LOCAL PRESS

 

Dacic: Do not equate Islam and terrorism (Beta)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has stated in Vienna that Serbia is firmly oriented to contribute together with international partners to combatting terrorism. At the conference dubbed “Tackling Jihadism Together – Shaping, Preventing, Reacting” in Vienna, Dacic, nevertheless, stressed that one must avoid any identification of Islam with extremism and terrorism over which special attention must be devoted to the parallel fight against Islamophobia. “Serbia wants to contribute with all measures on the international plane in the direction of eradicating extremism and radicalism and preventing terrorist activities. Every country, regardless of size, should play a role in accordance with its resources and possibilities, because terrorism, extremism and radicalism do not know borders,” said Dacic. He pointed out that Serbia “joined immediately activities on the international plane” in challenging the activities of the Islamic State and as the member of the Global Coalition, that it co-sponsored UNSC Resolution 2178 and amended the criminal code in order to prevent departure or transit of persons through its territory towards participation in conflicts in other countries. Dacic said that Serbian citizens are going to fight in the ranks of the Islamic State, mostly from the Raska region and Kosovo, but that the number of foreign fighters from Serbia is relatively small in relation to the total number of foreign fighters of the Islamic State (around hundred), but not negligible. The conference in Vienna is also attended by the Austrian and Western Balkan foreign and interior ministers, and among them are also ministers Hashim Thaqi and Skender Hyseni.

 

Dacic meets with European parliamentarians (Tanjug)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic informed a delegation of the European Parliament, headed by Eduard Kukan, about the current state of the process of Serbia’s EU integration. In talks with European MEPs, Dacic discussed current issues of foreign policy of Serbia and priorities of the OSCE presidency, and presented results of the continuation of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina under the auspices of the EU. Kukan welcomed the steps taken by Serbia to accelerate the EU integration, as well as the level of preparation and engagement of Serbian institutions in the integration process. He stressed the importance of continuing dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and supported Serbia’s EU integration process.

 

Gojkovic: EU integration – Serbia’s top priority (RTS)

The EU integration is Serbia’s top priority in the field of foreign policy and Serbia is determined to achieve European standards, said Serbian parliament speaker Maja Gojkovic in talks with members of the European Parliament delegation, led by Eduard Kukan. Kukan said he appreciates Serbia’s commitment on its course to the EU, adding that the visit was of great importance for the introduction of European parliamentarians to Serbia’s progress in the EU integration process. The European parliamentarians were interested in the dynamics and procedures of the parliament, stressing the importance of cooperation with civil society and independent institutions.

 

Third meeting of the parliamentary Committee for Serbia’s stabilization and association with the EU (Radio Serbia, by Sandra Pekic)

“Next week Serbia will complete the entire process of screening for all 35 negotiating chapters, and the first chapter may be opened by the end of this year,” said Serbian Minister without Portfolio in charge of EU integration Jadranka Joksimovic at a meeting of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Serbia’s Stabilization and Association with the EU in the Serbian parliament that was attended by Head of the European Parliament Delegation for Serbia Eduard Kukan. Joksimovic explained that they are currently working intensively on action plans for Chapters 23 and 24, concerning justice, security and fundamental rights, which should be among the first to open. According to her, the Serbian government has a balanced and mature attitude towards European integration and knows its obligations. “Serbia is a candidate country and is yet to open a negotiating chapter, so it is difficult to expect Serbia to fully comply with the EU foreign policy,” said Joksimovic. Thanking Kukan and parliamentarians who contributed to the adoption of positive resolution on Serbia’s progress in EU integration, the Minister emphasized the importance of the European parliament in helping Serbia become the focus of European institutions. At the beginning of the session of the parliamentary Committee for Stabilization and Association, Kukan said that the fact that the largest delegation of parliamentarians in the history of the European parliament is paying a visit to Belgrade shows the interest of this European body in Serbia. Expressing hope that first chapters will be opened in 2015, Kukan said that negotiations on the EU membership are not easy, as it requires strength and readiness, as well as the skill of compromise. However, he pointed out, this process is an opportunity to implement reforms in the country, which will make it more democratic and prosperous. According to him, it is especially important to work in the areas of Chapters 23 and 24 - justice, human rights and the fight against corruption. When it comes to cooperation in the region, Kukan praised the positive role of Serbia and stressed the importance of continuing the normalization of relations with Pristina.

 

The road to the future or deception (Danas, by Jelena Tasic)

Are the requests, adopted two days ago in Gracanica at the first joint session of ten Serb majority municipalities in the Kosovo system of local self-government, “a road to the future and survival of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija”, as the Head of the Serb (Srpska) List Aleksandar Jablanovic claims for Danas, or do they “create a political prerequisite for further deception of the Serb people”, as announced yesterday by the Kosovo Patriotic block. The Kosovo government conveyed yesterday that the requests of Serb representatives, primarily the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities, “will not have any effect on the government institutional agenda and Brussels”. Pristina is requesting that all past agreements from Brussels be implemented first. “Without fulfilling all 10 points of the conclusion from the joint session in Gracanica the survival of Kosovo is impossible. We have the responsibility to fulfill them, and guarantee of success will be our unity in implementing the things we unilaterally adopted on Wednesday. The question is only how do we convince the Albanian side to implement what it had committed itself according to the Brussels agreement – the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities (ZSO),” says Jablanovic. He couldn’t confirm that the requests from Gracanica will be included in the draft Statute of the ZSO. He claims that this is an issue for members of the Management Team who are drafting this document, and it also includes the Minister for Local Self-Government in the Kosovo government Ljubomir Maric. Maric attended the meeting in Gracanica, as well as the consultations of the Serb List with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric last week in Belgrade. Jablanovic didn’t wish to comment the speculations from Brussels’ diplomatic circles that Vucic has allegedly already accepted the ZSO without executive jurisdictions without which, as the Serb List claims, “only uncertainty awaits the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija”. Asked whether with the requests in Gracanica the Serb List, so to speak, reduced the issue of the survival of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija down to conditions for participation and representation of Serb representatives in the institutions of the self-declared Kosovo state, Jablanovic points out that “they launched an initiative two days ago to resolve the Serb issue based on status neutral negotiations and agreements in Brussels”. Asked why, if Kosovo is in Serbia, they insist on the resolution of the Serb issue, instead of the resolution of the Albanian issue, Jablanovic says that “this is in the interest of all Serb people in Kosovo in Metohija in order to prevent Pristina from dividing the Serbs on southern and northern”. The Kosovo Patriotic block, which includes the Democratic Party of Serbia, Dveri and several citizen associations, stated yesterday: “The message sent from Gracanica is that the state of Serbia with its institutions is withdrawing from Kosovo and Metohija and leaving the Serb people at the mercy of those who are working everyday on its disappearance. On behalf of the Serb people, another adopted conclusion requires the respect of the Constitution and laws of the non-recognized state of Kosovo. This is happening at a moment when the media are publishing the alleged platform of the Serbian President, whereby Kosovo and Metohija is given the widest possible autonomy that doesn’t require amendments to the Serbian Constitution. All this speaks about the seriousness and coordination of the policy towards Kosovo conducted by the state leadership.” The statement points out that the delegates elected according to the Kosovo laws do not have legality and legitimacy to pass any decisions on behalf of the Serb people, who said at the 2012 referendum that they oppose integration into the constitutional-legal system of the non-recognized state of Kosovo. “If the situation were not as it is, the document from Gracanica should be binding for Pristina, but it claims that it doesn’t accept ultimatums. Having in mind that only 10 percent of Serb voters took part in the local and parliamentary Kosovo elections, the requests from Gracanica are also not binding for all Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. I am surprised that they do not mention economic development, which is main condition for the survival of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, and that Pristina is requested to implement everything that the Kosovo Serbs had opposed over the past 15 years, including the census. The fact that the Serbs are exerting pressure on Pristina to implement Kosovo laws is the consequence of the Brussels agreement and the abolishment of Serbian institutions, whereby they are placed before a fait accompli,” the Serbian MP from the Social-Democratic Party Goran Bogdanovic, who is also a delegate in the Leposavic municipal assembly and former minister for Kosovo and Metohija. Bogdanovic, who didn’t attend the meeting in Gracanica, says that “nobody was consulted about the requests in the conclusion, which he has nothing against”.

 

NATO can pass through Serbia (Novosti)

NATO soldiers should have free transit through Serbia, use Serbian military infrastructure and be “protected” with a special status while on Serbian territory. This is only one of the items to which Serbia has committed with the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), whose entry into force was formalized in Brussels by Serbian Foreign Minister Dacic and Serbian Defense Minister Gasic. The IPAP also implies the signing of the so-called SOFA agreement (which Serbia already has with the US) with NATO member states, which regulates the crossing of borders and level of immunity for Alliance members while transiting Serbia or staying in it, as well as access to military premises. Serbia has also committed to have the regional training center “Jug” (South) near Bujanovac open for all member states of the Partnership for Peace Program and NATO, gradually harmonize its regulations in the field of defense with the EU, destroy surplus of armament. Especially intriguing is the mandatory item on cooperation with NATO in the field of public diplomacy, but this, as Novosti’s interlocutors claim, doesn’t mean that Serbia should “blindly” follow NATO’s military doctrine, activities, foreign and security policy, but to cooperate on raising awareness on NATO standards, activities within the Partnership for Peace Program and promotion of regional stability. For military analyst Aleksandar Radic the obligations from the IPAP agreement are not disputable. He says that even the obligation for NATO soldiers to be provided with freedom of movement and special status is not disputable: “There is no mystery in these agreements and they serve to simplify customs and border procedures, as well as conditions for transit through Serbia, when, let’s say, foreign soldiers arrive in Serbia for a joint military drill or some other occasion. When we sign with some state this kind of agreement, then Serbian soldiers have the same rights.”

Moscow will not react

The Head of the Foreign Policy Center Aleksandra Joksimovic tells Novosti that the IPAP agreement doesn’t threaten Serbia’s military and defense positions nor does it bring into question cooperation with other states, including Russia: “I don’t see why this would cause any kind of special reaction from Moscow. Besides, a joint Serbian-Russian military drill has been scheduled for September. In my opinion, the obligation to cooperate in public diplomacy also isn’t a problem, since this implies visibility of certain joint activities, not combat, but in rescuing people in natural disasters.”

US satisfied over Serbia and NATO (Tanjug)

The US welcomes the finalization of the Serbia’s Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with NATO and the visit of Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic and Minister of Defense Bratislav Gasic’s visit to NATO headquarters. At a daily press briefing in Washington, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said that this represented an important step in the growing cooperation between NATO and the Republic of Serbia. “Serbia has been a valued member of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program since 2006, and the finalization of the IPAP agreement will allow Serbia to enhance its cooperation with NATO on issues of common interest and mutual benefit,” she said.

 

SNP: Petition against sanctions to Russia (Beta)

The Serbian People’s Party (SNP) has launched an initiative for collecting signatures of citizens for the petition against introduction of sanctions to Russia. The SNP leader Nenad Popovic stressed that Serbia’s consent to imposing sanctions against Russia would be not only turning its back on its best friend, but also an act against Serbian national, economic and political interests, and he called on the citizens to join the action of signing the petition “No to Sanctions Against Russia”. He said that Russia was the greatest patron of Serbian national and state interests, especially regarding the issue of Kosovo and Metohija and the Republika Ruska, but also the greatest “patron of vital economic interests”. “Just as Russia has always stood along Serbia during the most difficult times over the past centuries, so should Serbia and its citizens show solidarity with the Russian citizens,” said Popovic. Once the SNP collects a sufficient number of signatures, it will forward the petition to the Serbian parliament.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

No conditions for extraordinary session (Srna)

The Chairman of the FB&H House of Representatives Edin Music told MPs that an extraordinary session could not start because FB&H Vice-President Milan Dunovic withdrew his approval for the appointment of the federation government. Music said that at present there are no conditions for opening an extraordinary session for confirming the FB&H government, and stressed that these dilemmas should be resolved as soon as possible so the federation government would be formed. “It is better to wait than to bring into question the constitutionality of the decisions that we must adopt. We want the decisions that we pass to be in accordance with the Constitution and law, and in the following period we need to remove all procedural mistakes,” said Music. The FB&H President Marinko Cavara told the press that he thinks the decision of the FB&H Vice-President on the withdrawal of approval for the appointment of the federation government was a hasty one. Cavara noted that it turned out that the decision that was signed on the appointment of the federation government had certain shortcomings and that the Commission for election and appointment requested a written explanation on the nationality of the candidates for ministers in the federation government, which wasn’t received from the parties. He voiced hope that the problem would be resolved by 24 March at the latest and a session of the FB&H House of Representatives held, where the government would be confirmed.

 

Covic: Council of Ministers should not wait for FB&H government (Nezavisne)

The HDZ B&H leader Dragan Covic has stated that the B&H Council of Ministers should not wait for the agreement on the FB&H government and stressed that the federation government must be formed next week. Covic is surprised that the FB&H government was not confirmed in the FB&H House of Representatives, but voiced hope that the problem would be resolved today. He told the press in Mostar that he would request detailed information to see where the problem was, and talk with partners in order to create an atmosphere for scheduling a session of the FB&H House of Representatives for 23 or 24 March, where there would not be similar improvisations. “We submitted on 16 March all candidates for both the B&H Council of Ministers and the FB&H government and by 18 March, when the FB&H president and two vice-presidents signed the government composition, we haven’t had one single objection. How do you then understand that someone tells you on 19 March that they there are objections,” said Covic. Asked whether the HDZ would give up from the Serb position in the FB&H government and withdraw the candidacy of Zora Dujmovic, Covic said he wasn’t thinking about such a scenario at the moment, but that he would do everything to remove the obstacle, whatever it was.

 

Cvijanovic: Coordination mechanism for SAA implementation (Srna) 

The Republika Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic said that establishing a coordination mechanism based on constitutional jurisdictions of all government levels is of crucial importance for the implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) so that all government institutions could meet its European obligations in keeping with it. In talks with the Norwegian Ambassador to B&H, Ms Vibeke Lilloe, Cvijanovic stressed that the EU had sent a positive signal. Cvijanovic said that the RS government has already started to adopt the first package of reform laws, the RS Bureau for Public Relations stated. They also discussed during the meeting the current political and economic situation in the RS and B&H, with an emphasis on the support to the EU External Affairs Council for the entry into force of the SAA with B&H.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Hidden motives: Why countries that recognize Palestinian statehood turn their backs on Kosovo (Quartz, by Jake Flanagin, 20 March 2015)

The state we're in

When we talk about Islam in Europe, we’re generally thinking about Bangladeshis in Britain and Algerians in France. Maybe Pakistani migrant-farmers in Greece, or Somali refugees in Scandinavia. But the Muslims of Europe’s Balkan peninsula long predate Maghrebi settlement in the Goutte d’Or. And few outside the region realize that, in fact, there are countries on the European continent where Muslims compose the majority—and not as a result of spectral “reverse colonization.” Countries with Europe’s most substantial Muslim communities include Bosnia-Herzegovina, where they are 40% of the population, according to the CIA; Macedonia, where they make up a third; Montenegro, where they’re 19%, and Bulgaria, 7.8%. Nearby Albania and Kosovo are arguably Europe’s “most Islamic” countries, when excluding Turkey. In Albania, 56.7% of the population adheres to Sunni Islam. And although exact numbers aren’t available for Kosovo, one of the world’s youngest countries, estimates of the Muslim population hover at around 90% of its two million residents. “Kosovars and Albanians are seen to be the lapdogs of the Americans.” Both countries are home to ethnic-Albanian majorities, many of whom are descended from Christians that converted to Islam during four centuries of Ottoman-Turkish rule. Despite this, a number of Muslim-majority countries refuse to recognize Kosovar statehood; even as they passionately advocate for Palestinian sovereignty with the other hand. Most notable among these are Iran, Syria, and the Palestinian Authority. “The PLO didn’t recognize the independence of Kosovo,” Imam Stephen Schwartz, executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, tells Quartz. “Kosovo is not a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. And this is because Kosovars and Albanians are seen to be the lapdogs of the Americans.” Schwartz refers to a palpable, on-the-ground popularity of the US in Albania and Kosovo, almost entirely due to NATO’s involvement in the tail end of the Yugoslav Wars; specifically, the allied bombing of Belgrade, capital of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), now the Republic of Serbia. NATO and FRY officials signed an agreement mandating full withdrawal of Serbian troops from Kosovo in late 1999, which paved the way toward an independent Republic of Kosovo, officially declared in Feb. 2008. Though there is measurable interaction and occasional cooperation between Kosovo and Serbia, the latter has yet to recognize Kosovar independence. And this might partially explain why Kosovars lack the international support lent to other statehood efforts, like that of the Palestinians. “The hypocrisy of refusing to recognize Kosovo is an unbelievable thing,” Schwartz says. “Certain Arab countries and members of the OIP won’t do it because Kosovar statehood was assisted by America. Kosovo was liberated by America.” In fact, when looking at respective lists of countries that recognize Palestine and/or Kosovo, the divide runs rather cleanly along factional lines: With some overlap in Latin America, the Middle East, Scandinavia, and Africa (the British parliament’s Oct. 2014 vote to recognize Palestinian statehood was non-binding), the allegiance to Kosovo or Palestine can be distilled to a given country’s attitude toward the US. With the exception of Libya, Egypt, and Pakistan, most Middle Eastern supporters of Kosovar statehood are also strategic US military allies: Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, and Jordan. Predictably, Iran and North Korea recognize Palestine, but not Kosovo. Russia, a long-time ally of Serbia—which insists Kosovo to be part of the ancestral ethnic-Serb homeland (Raska)—recognizes Palestine, but not Kosovo. Members of the Moscow-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)—Belarus, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, etc.—follow suit. The remaining BRICS (China, India, Brazil, South Africa) recognize Palestine, but not Kosovo; perhaps in some spirit of defiance against the “old guard” of geopolitical order—countries like Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and most of the EU, all of which recognize Kosovo, but reject Palestinian statehood. The divide plays out even further along traditional international rivalries. Colombia recognizes Kosovo, not Palestine; Venezuela recognizes Palestine, not Kosovo. Pakistan recognizes Kosovo; India and Bangladesh do not. Azerbaijan recognizes Palestine; Armenia does not. Though beyond the seemingly simple cartographic representations, the issue of limited recognition gets pretty complicated. There are some conspicuous ambivalences. Mexico recognizes neither Palestine nor Kosovo, perhaps in part to appease both the US and its Latin American (largely pro-Palestine) neighbors. Nor does Greece recognize either, perhaps because it has stood close to the flame of Balkan interethnic violence for centuries, and lies just a few hundred nautical miles the west of Israel. Israel, interestingly enough, does not recognize Kosovar statehood—probably because the establishment of an ethnic-Albanian state on formerly Serbian soil would set a precedent for Arab-Palestinian secession. You’ll see similar mentalities at practice in Spain, which has historically struggled to keep hold of its Basque and Catalan regions; Morocco, which maintains a claim on the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara); China, for obvious reasons regarding Taiwan, Tibet, and the Uighur region; and the Russian Federation, which seems to make the bulk of its foreign-policy decisions based on whether a given move might inspire, or stoke extant secessionist sentiments in its outer republics. This ultimately renders humanitarian appeals for recognition in Kosovo and Palestine (and Abkhazia, and eastern Ukraine, and Kurdistan) rather dishonest. The nations in question, the actual people vying for self-determination, are championed by their respective supporters as suffering nobly under the yoke of amoral oppressors. To the pro-Kosovo faction, big-bad Russia and little-bad Serbia impede international recognition for the sake of being bad. To the pro-Palestine crowd, big-bad America and little-bad Israel deny Palestinian sovereignty within the same, moralistic, black-and-white framework. All parties seem to use righteous indignation to their political advantage; except, of course, the parties with the most tangible stakes: the Kosovars and Palestinians. They are minimized to little more than chess pieces—pawns, in fact, the most disposable of chess pieces—buffeted between elite players in the great game of 21st century realpolitik. A game that, for these would-be states, offers no discernible prize.

 

Iranian Propagandists in Kosovo (Weekly Standard, by Stephen Schwartz, 19 March 2015)

Kosovo Albanians, overwhelmingly Muslim, love America—which rescued them from Serbian aggression in 1999—and desire diplomatic relations with Israel. Kosovo does not recognize the Palestinian Authority and does not belong to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The Islamic Republic of Iran, meanwhile, does not acknowledge Kosovo’s formal independence. How has it happened, then, that harsh voices are now detected against America and Israel, and for Iran, in the Balkan state? On February 27, the independent Kosovo news portal Express, under the byline of a courageous opponent of radical Islam, Visar Duriqi, reported that Iranian ideological agents are active in the territory. Their path has been opened by a non-governmental organization (NGO) representing Shia Islam and called the “Koran Foundation of Kosovo.” The foundation is affiliated with an identically-named enterprise in Albania. The pro-Iranian NGO was launched in Kosovo, according to Duriqi, in 2002. Its patron was an Iranian, Hasan Azari Bejandi, assisted by Ikballe Huduti-Berisha, a Kosovar woman and devotee of Shiism. Documents in the possession of Express reveal a turnover of more than 100,000 euros per year by the Koran Foundation, Duriqi wrote. The most notorious representative of the Iranian NGO in Kosovo is Zehra Huduti, daughter of Ikballe Huduti-Berisha. A resident of Prizren, Kosovo’s second city, Zehra Huduti announced on Iran’s Internet-based Nasr TV, in a visit to the Islamic Republic three years ago, that she was “[there] to fight Israel and America.”

 

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