Kurti: Ethnically-Based Community of Municipalities Dangerous Precedent, Path to New Conflicts

Albin Kurti (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti urged Western powers not to put pressure on Kosovo to accept the establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities, but rather focus on how to make Serbia more of a democracy, giving up what he called Belgrade’s hegemonic ideas.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Kurti said that the authorities in Serbia should recognize the independence of all former Yugoslav republics to “face the past.” If they get rid of the idea that Kosovo is still part of Serbia, they will be “more democratic and more European,” Kurti suggested.

The West should have learned a lesson in Republika Srpska, and fear a new mini-state in Kosovo,” Kurti has cautioned.

“If in the Western Balkans we affirm the idea of ethnically-based municipalities, a new recipe for conflicts is created,” Kurti said, adding that the West should pay attention to what’s going on in the region, “because any wrong solution in the Balkans can be used elsewhere,” Kurti said in the interview.

The new French-German proposal for Kosovo offers “a good framework and a platform for progress, which makes us hopeful as to the outcome of future negotiations supposed to produce an agreement,” Kurti said.