The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said on Tuesday that the September 24 attack on the police in the north of the country is evidence of Serbia’s plans for the annexation of the north of Kosovo.
On Sunday, September 24, in the village of Banjské in the north of Kosovo, a group of armed Serbs shot at the Kosovo police, killing one officer and injuring another. During the ensuing clashes, three attackers were killed.
“While I was at the dialogue table in Brussels and at the summits of the Berlin Process to reach an agreement for the future, as we saw a week ago, Serbia was working on military plans for the annexation of our territory. This shows that our neighbor to the north is not interested in regional cooperation and membership in the European Union, but instead has alternative geopolitical orientations which are part of the hegemonic ambitions towards the neighbors”, said Prime Minister Kurti.
He emphasized that the most important and urgent issue today is security for the attacked Kosovo and punishment for the attackers, the vast majority of whom he said are part of the “Civil Defense” and “Northern Brigade” organizations declared terrorist by the Kosovo government earlier in the year.
“The punishment for the attackers means the punishment of Serbia, which financially, militarily, logistically, politically, publicly and officially supported what happened in Banjska i Zvečani on Sunday, September 24. But at the same time, the surrender or extradition of all those who are being persecuted because they fled from the crime scene and from our country”, he said.
Prime Minister Kurti made these comments in a debate organized by the Pristina Institute for Political Studies on the Berlin Process, which is an initiative created with the aim of deepening the coordination between the countries of the Western Balkans as well as supporting the membership process of this part in the European Union.
He said that Serbia is not interested in regional cooperation and European integration, emphasizing Belgrade’s increasingly close ties with Moscow.
“For integration and regional cooperation, it is important that the six countries of the Western Balkans, all of them progress in a democratic way, because genuine cooperation occurs from common values and a common strategic orientation. Most of the Balkan countries have these in common, but not all. It is especially evident after the September 24 terrorist attack by Serbia against Kosovo, but also its open and ever closer cooperation with Russia that the lack of regional cooperation is due to deep differences in strategic orientation”, said Prime Minister Kurti .
Belgrade has denied links to the events of September 24, which were claimed by Milan Radoicic, the former vice president of Lista Serbe, the largest party of Kosovo Serbs that was founded and is supported by Belgrade.
The September 24 clashes fueled new international concerns about the stability of the region and the process of normalizing relations between Kosovo, which declared independence with the support of the West, and Serbia, which disputes its citizenship with the support of Moscow.
Last Sunday’s events will be part of a discussion during the day in the European Parliament, from which Prime Minister Kurti said he expects clear punishment for the attackers.
“I believe that the following discussions, including those in the forums of the European Union, the highest of them the European Parliament, in terms of civic and democratic involvement, are security for Kosovo, punishments for the attackers and at the same time we should not try to we continue with any idea of the status quo, which may exist and I don’t believe that anyone should have it”, said Prime Minister Kurti.