UNMIK Media Observer, Morning Edition, June 9, 2022

Montenegro mulls joining ‘Open Balkan’, Kosovo remains opposed (BIRN)
President Osmani meets Greek Foreign Minister Dendias (media)
PM Kurti: Kosovo’s relationship with Greece grows closer every day (media)
Dendias meets heads of international missions and Quint ambassadors (media)
Interior Minister Svecla interview with KTV
LDK leader Abdixhiku meets US Ambassador Hovenier (media)
Mehaj: Turkey supports Kosovo’s membership in security organisations (RTK)
Rama and Vucic debunk Lavrov’s claims on Open Balkan (euronews.al)
“Vucic spectacular achievement by dividing Tirana and Prishtina” (euronews.al)
Kosovo theatre director takes on controversy over Handke Nobel Prize (BIRN)
Pride Parade today in Prishtina; will leaders attend? (Gazeta Express)

Montenegro mulls joining ‘Open Balkan’, Kosovo remains opposed (BIRN)

Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said at the Open Balkan summit in the town of Ohrid on Wednesday that he sees the initiative favourably, but said will first have to weigh up all its aspects with his cabinet before making any decision about whether to join.

“I see the Open Balkan initiative as help for jointly creating a future of economic progress, business, greater mobility of citizens, and greater cooperation in all fields. Every initiative that can lead to progress and reconciliation will have the support of the Montenegrin government,” Abazovic said.

The initiative, spearheaded by Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania, has so far been rebuffed by Kosovo, Bosnia and Montenegro.

Like Abazovic, the head of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers, Zoran Tegeltija, attended the summit as an observer, but offered less optimism about the possibility of his country joining the initiative.

Tegeltija said that despite the fact that the Bosnian business community and public generally support the initiative, his country still lacks a consensus about it for “political reasons”.

This is the first time that a summit of the initiative has attracted representatives from five out of six Western Balkan countries, which is seen as considerable progress.

The countries that have not joined the initiative so far, Kosovo, Bosnia and Montenegro, have expressed fears that it might turn into an unnecessary because the issues of establishing closer regional ties and overcoming bureaucratic barriers for businesses and societies are already on the EU integration agenda.

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary overseeing Western Balkans policy, Gabriel Escobar, said in a video address to the summit that the US supports the initiative, and that the countries involved should strive to keep it focused on economy and not make it a political movement. “That’s how you will get more support,” he said, adding that in order to succeed, the initiative will have to incorporate all six Western Balkan countries and would have to align its agenda with all other regional initiatives like the EU’s Berlin Process.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the region needs cooperation as never before due to the food shortages caused by the war in Ukraine. Reiterating that the initiative should not be seen as an alternative to the EU, Vucic stressed that his country is interested in solving practical problems.

Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama also pointed to the need for practical solutions. “We have the winter on the horizon, which will bring a shortage of electricity on the market. We do not have the luxury of turning our backs on each other and waging conflicts. We will also be jointly faced with the problem of [procuring] grain,” Rama said.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3MBXg7j

President Osmani meets Greek Foreign Minister Dendias (media)

President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, met on Wednesday with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias in Prishtina. Osmani said Kosovo and Greece share the same Euro-Atlantic values and called on Greece to support Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe, Partnership for Peace and NATO, as a guarantee not only for Kosovo, but also for the region. A press release issued by the President’s Office notes that Osmani “mentioned the danger from the destabilizing tendencies of Russia in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, through Serbia as its satellite”.

Osmani wrote in a Twitter post that the two leaders discussed deepening bilateral cooperation, common Euro-Atlantic vision for a secure and peaceful Europe, and developments in the region. “We welcome close ties with Greece, hoping that the recognition of Kosovo by Greece will soon be formalized,” Osmani tweeted.

PM Kurti: Kosovo’s relationship with Greece grows closer every day (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said on Wednesday that Kosovo’s relationship with Greece grows closer every day. “Kosova’s relationship with Greece grows closer every day. It is a testimony to our good bilateral relations but also a recognition of our shared values of freedom and democracy,” Kurti tweeted after dinner with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.

Dendias meets heads of international missions and Quint ambassadors (media)

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, during his stay in Prishtina on Wednesday, met with heads of international missions and Quint ambassadors. Dendias wrote in a Twitter post: “I met with Heads of Missions and Offices of International and Regional Organizations in Pristina and Quint Ambassadors - focus on the regional geopolitical situation, the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and the Western Balkans’ EU perspective”.

Interior Minister Svecla interview with KTV

Kosovo’s Minister of Interior Affairs, Xhelal Svecla, said in an interview with KTV on Wednesday that the perpetrators of attacks against Kosovo Police in the north will be arrested soon. Svecla said the attacks have failed and that he believes Kosovo Police professionals will soon bring concrete results, not only identifying but also arresting and bringing the perpetrators to court. According to Svecla, the smuggling activities in the north of Kosovo have almost been stopped completely and that alternative roads used for smuggling goods have been blocked.

During the interview, Svecla also argued that there were party militants and not war veterans in Monday’s protest in front of the Kosovo Assembly. He also said that the draft law on wages will be presented for public discussion in a matter of days.

LDK leader Abdixhiku meets US Ambassador Hovenier (media)

Leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Lumir Abdixhiku, hosted a meeting with US Ambassador Jeffrey Hovenier. A statement issued by LDK after the meeting notes: “Ambassador Hovenier had a conversation session with LDK officials that are engaged in foreign policy, economic development and Euro-Atlantic integration. They discussed Kosovo’s integration processes, EU facilitated dialogue, Kosovo’s economic and energy development, good governance, justice reforms and the partnership in the field of defence and the advancement of the Kosovo Security Force. Abdixhiku expressed the position of the LDK that Kosovo should take its responsibilities in advancing the Euro-Atlantic agenda and making decisions of national interest to the country. Abdixhiku thanked Ambassador Hovenier for the support that the United States has given to Kosovo in all historical stages”.

Mehaj: Turkey supports Kosovo’s membership in security organisations (RTK)

Kosovo’s Minister of Defence, Armend Mehaj, is visiting Turkey, following an invitation from his Turkish counterpart, Hulus Akar. The two ministers agreed to further intensify cooperation in the service of peace, security and stability in the region and beyond. Akar expressed readiness to support Kosovo’s membership in international and regional security and defence organisations, the NATO Partnership for Peace Program, and membership in the Council of Europe.

Rama and Vucic debunk Lavrov’s claims on Open Balkan (euronews.al)

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Serbian President Alexandar Vucic excluded any possibility that the Open Balkan initiative was a Russian idea. During the Open Balkan Summit in Ohrid, where 5 Western Balkan leaders participated, Rama said that Lavrov’s statements were simply ‘a form of sarcasm’. According to Rama, the Open Balkan initiative is endorsed by the United States and the EU and their presence during today’s meeting of their special representatives only goes to prove this. “Lavrov is a high-level shark in the world of global diplomacy, and he is well-known for his sarcasm,” he added.

Rama called for historical disagreements to be set aside while suggesting that the Balkans follow the example of US-Japan and how they overcame their differences. “Let us build a new history like all those nations who have known how to leave behind stories of the past. Japan and the US are close allies today, after 2 atomic bombs,” he argued.

Serbian President Vucic said Russia didn’t have any influence in the creation of the Open Balkan initiative. He said that everything was prompted by the initiative of Rama, Zaev and himself. “No one else apart from us had anything to do with Open Balkan,” Vucic said.

“Vucic’s spectacular achievement by dividing Tirana and Prishtina” (euronews.al)

Tirana-based political analyst Andi Bushati considered the latest Open Balkan Summit held this Wednesday in Ohrid, North Macedonia a ‘spectacular achievement’ for Serbian president Alexandar Vucic. “Not only did it expand Serbia’s markets but it above all else, was able to ‘perfectly’ create a division between Tirana and Prishtina,” he said.

According to the analyst, Kosovo’s and Albania’s stances are diametrically different. In addition, he said that Rama has come out against the entire political scene in Kosovo by positioning himself alongside Serbia. “We’re more divided than ever. Whose fault is it? If you look at Vucic, who was sworn in as Serbia’s President for the second time, he vowed to only recognize Kosovo as part of Serbia. Rama on the other hand is obligated by his Constitution to protect the interest of Albanians wherever they may be,” – he argued.

Kosovo theatre director takes on controversy over Handke Nobel Prize (BIRN)

With a cast and crew from across the Balkans, Italy and France, a new play takes on the controversy surrounding Peter Handke’s 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature and asks, ‘Can we separate the art from the artist?’

Some controversies never age and some resurface in different form.

That’s what happened on a recent Friday in the Kosovo capital, Pristina, when the furore over Austrian writer Peter Handke’s 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature was repackaged for the theatre.

It was not so much Handke’s work that was on stage, but the words and actions of a man who delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2006 and cast doubt on the massacres of Muslim Bosniaks during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Celebrated in Serbia and in the Serb-dominated part of Bosnia, his Nobel Prize was lambasted in other parts of the former Yugoslavia, where Handke is seen as an apologist for the Greater Serbia ideology that fuelled the wars.

The decision by the Swedish Nobel Committee triggered debate over whether a writer’s work can be viewed and appreciated independent of his or her moral or political views.

Director Blerta Rrustemi Neziraj said not.

“Our position is clear: fabrication of the truth, genocide-denial and support for war criminals cannot be ‘sold’ to the public as ‘literature’,” she told BIRN. “And those viewpoints cannot be considered and tolerated under the concept of ‘artistic freedom’.

The play premiered in Pristina on June 3 and arrives in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, on Thursday.