Today, Adriatik Kelmendi praised the leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), Ramush Haradinaj, for participating in the meeting called by the President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga, in an attempt to find a solution to the political crisis. “To reach a situation that is beneficial for all, often one must act courageously, despite the danger this may incur for one's personal position. There is no doubt that this is applicable to Ramush Haradinaj,” Kelmendi writes.

According to the writer of this opinion piece, Halil Matoshi, the President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, cannot succeed in overcoming the political crisis in Kosovo considering that she has served the Democratic Party of Kosovo and Hashim Thaci for almost two mandates. He views her leadership as pitiful.

KTV’s Editor-in-Chief Adriatik Kelmendi writes in his weekly column for the paper that early general elections are increasingly being seen as an option for overcoming the current political crisis but the opposition parties – Vetevendosje, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) and Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA) – “are either unable or don’t want to realize that the majority of the citizens are not at all bothered with whether certain individuals from one party will be replaced in elections with individuals from another one.”  What the people want to see, ac

Augustin Palokaj, the paper’s Brussels-based correspondent, writes that last week was quite an eventful one for Kosovo in the international scene with three interlinked events happening around the same time.

Lumir Abdixhiku, executive director of the Pristina-based research institute RIINVEST, writes in an opinion piece that dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade must happen but that "the process should respect some general principles that Kosovars need to lay out”. The first and most important principle, according to Abdixhiku, should be national unity. “National unity is important especially if we are obliged to address Kosovo’s internal arrangements – always in compliance with the Constitution.

KTV editor-in-chief Adriatik Kelmendi argues in an opinion piece that “Kosovo today is hostage of a mysterious agreement between two friends, [PDK leader] Hashim Thaci and [PDK deputy leader] Kadri Veseli, “who are willing to risk many things, including the position of the PDK, to fulfill each other’s ambitions. The question is why?” Kelmendi writes that if Thaci is elected President, it is almost certain that Veseli will be elected leader of the PDK but, according to Kelmendi, Veseli won’t be able to fill the gap that Thaci will leave behind.

Political analyst Halil Matoshi argues in an opinion piece that Hashim Thaci, leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), cannot pretend to be a unifying figure if he gets elected President of Kosovo in an Assembly building surrounded by police and without the presence of opposition MPs”. According to Matoshi, Thaci’s election under such circumstances would bring about further division in Kosovo’s society; it would outrage the opposition, would not help the country emerge from the current crisis and would result in further clashes.

Brussels-based correspondent Augustin Palokaj argues in an opinion piece that the main condition for Kosovo to obtain visa liberalization is the sentencing of senior officials in cases of corruption and organized crime. “The European Union wants proof of this. There is no more room for politicians because it seems that visa liberalization is now in the hands of Kosovo’s courts.

The paper has run an opinion piece by Andrea Lorenzo Capussela who argues that the verdict of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo to remove Behgjet Pacolli from Presidency a few years ago, makes it impossible for the PDK leader Hashim Thaci to be elected President, because it requires the presence of all MPs at the session. “"Consequently, if one MP is absent, the vote cannot take place. And the MPs cannot be forced into going to the Assembly.

By ANDREW RETTMAN

he Netherlands has formally agreed to host an EU-funded tribunal on Kosovo war crimes, with “sensitive” trials of former Kosovo guerrilla chiefs to start “this year.” The Dutch government took the decision on the Kosovo Relocated Specialist Judicial Institution (KSJI) on Friday (15 January). Details remain to be approved by Dutch and Kosovan parliaments.