The Albanian representatives in the government of North Macedonia described the situation created on Thursday at the Skopje airport with the President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani as a “misunderstanding”, whose office said that it was a “pure provocation”. In a statement on Friday, the Kosovo presidency said “yesterday's situation…was tending to cause an incident”.
On Thursday, the office of President Osmani said that “the security of Skopje Airport tried to take the President's personal phone. The president did not allow such a thing, because it would be a serious violation. Despite the explanation of the rules that the President's team made known to the airport official, he tried to physically push the President, in which case the Kosovo Police was forced to react to open the way. This behavior of the Macedonian airport official is contrary to all international practices, according to which when heads of state travel, they are protected by diplomatic privileges and immunities.“, said in a statement referring to the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo said that it has requested official clarifications from the embassy of North Macedonia in Pristina and from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia.
The Foreign Minister, Donika Gërvalla, said in an announcement “has submitted a note of protest to the authorities of North Macedonia, asking for an immediate and complete explanation of this incident. At the same time, Macedonian authorities have been requested to take immediate measures to investigate this case and ensure that such events do not recur in the future.”.
In Skopje, the Ministry of the Interior said it has opened investigations, emphasizing “the intervention of the security of the Speaker of the Parliament of North Macedonia, Afrim Gashi, to the security of the airport“. The members of Mr. Gashi's security appeared at the airport after being notified by the presidency of Kosovo.
The opposition Social Democratic League blames VMRO-DPMNE, focusing its response on, as it says, “intervention of Mr. Gashi's insurance”.
“My commitment has been and will be to calm down, unite, not divide, and make incidents“, said the speaker of the parliament of North Macedonia.
TAV, the company that manages Skopje airport, told VOA that VIPs can go through security without going through security if they travel by private jet, but not if they travel by commercial jet.
The company said it has a legal obligation to carry out a security check of all passengers, baggage and cargo… “including those traveling through the VIP lounge. Therefore, TAV's security department, as part of its responsibilities, has carried out a standard security check of the mentioned passenger as well as his luggage, at the security check point in the VIP lounge, to ensure the specific commercial flight”.
Experts in the field blame the state security of North Macedonia for the created situation, emphasizing that the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, among other things, protects the diplomatic status, privileges and immunity of state leaders and members of their personnel in the territory of other states. . According to the convention, they say, when it comes to travel, people who have diplomatic status should be allowed free movement.
The Presidency of Kosovo said on Friday that “yesterday's situation at Skopje Airport cannot be explained or evaluated otherwise, except as a pure provocation and tendency to cause an incident”.
In a long post on Facebook, Bekim Kupina, spokesperson for President Vjosa Osmani, wrote that “instead of justifications and allowing propaganda against the Republic of Kosovo, we ask the official authorities in Skopje to urgently treat the case with high seriousness and to take appropriate measures against the officials who made this attack on the Republic of Kosovo”.
Albanian political parties were involved in an exchange of accusations about this event.
The chairman of the Democratic Union for Integration, Ali Ahmeti, through an article on social networks, condemned the incident at the airport.
“I blush at their shame“, Mr. Ahmeti wrote, accusing the parties of the VLEN coalition in the government of “being put in vassal and servile service (to VMRO) by bringing (Vladimir) Putin and (Aleksandar) Vučić into the government”.
On the other hand, the first deputy prime minister in the government of North Macedonia, Izet Mejhiti, wrote that “the misunderstanding caused between the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the TAV company and President Osmani's security has been clarified and overcome without complications and the situation has been resolved without consequences”.
Mr. Mejhiti accused DUI of producing, according to him, “another artificial crisis to minimize the achievements and results of the Vlen coalition, as is the case with the release from detention of a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army”.
It is not the first time that Kosovo leaders have faced a similar situation at the Skopje airport. Former Kosovo officials said that the former president of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, was faced with a similar approach, but the situation was resolved without making a fuss.
Kosovo and North Macedonia have had diplomatic relations since 2008, when Kosovo declared its independence with the support of the United States and major Western countries.
