Publicist Enver Robelli argues in his opinion piece that “calls for rejecting the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities by organizing a referendum can only complicate the current situation in Kosovo. People will not vote in favor or against the Association, but will instinctively vote against Serbia – and why should they be judged for this bearing in mind the crimes that Serbia has committed in Kosovo since 1912.
Columnist Lumir Abdixhiku writes that on the day Kosovo was making the first major international achievement this year, a step forward towards UNESCO membership, “illiterates and usurpers” got together to deliver a final blow to the University of Pristina (UP) by dismissing its rector, Ramadan Zejnullahu. The move, says Abdixhiku, was the most shameful, scandalous and irritating thing anyone in Kosovo did in quite a while and as a result, the public reaction was overwhelming. This in turn made the policymakers react and fix what was still fixable.
“We can continue lying to ourselves but truth be told there is no way not to conclude that the divisive and polarizing situation among the political parties at the Assembly is quite artificial,” the KTV’s editor-in-chief Adriatik Kelmendi begins his weekly column. Kelmendi claims he doesn’t believe that the government representatives love Kosovo more than the members of the opposition and vice-versa.
Kosovo's Minister of European Integration Bekim Collaku in an op-ed published in the paper announces that Kosovo will officially sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) on 27 October in Strasbourg. Collaku says this represents a historic moment for Kosovo and a turning point in relations with European Union which will now be advanced to a contractual level.
Publicist and political analyst Halil Matoshi writes that the opposition in Kosovo is completely silent on the issue of opening of EU-Serbia accession talks, in particular Chapter 35, because in many ways this chapter discards “conspiracy theories” that the Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities is a “mini-state”.
Columnist Enver Robelli writes there is currently a lot of frenzy in Serbia fuelled by the statement of the new president of the Serbian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Kostic that Kosovo is Serbia’s neighbor not its province and that someone should tell the people in Serbia that “Kosovo is de facto and de jure not in our hands.” The media and politicians in Serbia soon rushed to brand Kostic’s statement are being “shameful and humiliating” but according to Robelli, the statement represents a step in the right direction considering the past activity of the Serbian Academy of
The paper’s correspondent from Brussels, Augustin Palokaj writes that Kosovo is in a chaotic situation at the moment as the Kosovo government is facing radical blockade by the opposition. While the actions of the opposition are unacceptable in a normal democracy, neither are the government’s actions in consistently ignoring the Assembly. At the same time, the European Union has had a “hypocritical” stance towards the work of the Kosovo Assembly, says Palokaj.
The paper’s publisher Flaka Surroi writes today that the blockade of the Assembly that is going on for several weeks now, has come to the point of absurdity for which the people of Kosovo will pay the price. “The scenes of throwing eggs and teargas became international news. The escalation of the situation to throwing teargas in the Assembly is sinking us in a very deep crisis,” Surroi writes.
Kosovo Assembly Speaker Kadri Veseli in a visit to the municipality of Obiliq/Obilic discussed the need for a legislative solution for the polluted environment of the area. Veseli said the draft law is set to be discussed at the Assembly this Friday and called on all MPs to endorse it and thus help in reducing the level of pollution. Obiliq/Obilic Mayor Xhafer Gashi said there has been an increased number of cancer cases and respiratory diseases as a result of the polluted environment from the power plant.
The Mayor of Gracanica, Vladeta Kostic, and head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Andrew Russell, yesterday signed a memorandum of cooperation to combat corruption in this municipality. Kostic said that this memorandum represents the beginning of a decisive war against corruption. “We must constantly combat this bad phenomena, because neither institutions nor individuals can move forward because of corruption.