Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nemanja Starovic (Photo: printscreen/youtube)
Nemanja Starovic, a state secretary at the Defense Ministry, said on July 18 that certain countries, primarily Turkey, “had been intensively arming, training and in general strengthening capacities of the so-called Kosovo forces, which is at odds with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and other relevant international agreements.”
Speaking to public state broadcaster RTS, Starovic said that the country’s relevant bodies had been closely monitoring these developments and accordingly reporting to the state leadership. He added that Serbia “has used all available channels to warn” Turkey’s representatives that “this is absolutely inadmissible,” stressing that Turkey had been “donating” weaponry to Kosovo.
“Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti has publicly presented unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and all are aware that by donating weaponry to Kosovo, Turkey has been significantly building up capacities of those Kosovo forces. Unfortunately, not only drones have been supplied, but also very sophisticated anti-tank missiles, mortars and other kinds of arms,” Starovic specified.
He went on to say that “the level of risk and threats has been on the rise primarily to the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, and also to Serbia as a whole,” adding that it “is not a reason to panic, because we have an answer to all that and we are yet to have more.”
“This is particularly worrying as Turkey will take command of KFOR this fall, in what will be its first leadership of the NATO-led mission since its inception. It is not good, we could not have influenced this decision as it is exclusively under NATO jurisdiction,” Starovic noted.
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