Serbian FM Replies to Albanian PM’s Post: The Ibar River Is Being Discussed for One Reason - Serbian Homes Are Demolished  

Marko Djuric (mfa.gov.rs)

Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric said that the Ibar River is being discussed for one reason only: “Albin Kurti’s government is using this summer to demolish Serbian homes, without due process, along the shores of Lake Gazivode and the Ibar River, depriving people of their property, access and livelihoods through actions that are plainly ethnically discriminatory.” 

“This is the concrete reality. Everything else is secondary,” Djuric wrote on social media X commenting on Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s post saying that “the Ibar River flows according to geography, rather than political folklore.”

What Rama chose not to address in his post “is the systematic destruction of Serbian property taking place right now,” Djuric wrote, noting that the Ibar River does not flow through Albania.

The Serbian foreign minister also wrote that “any legitimate concerns should be addressed by the parties directly concerned, through established mechanisms and on the basis of facts, not through public pronouncements from non-riparian capitals.” 

Following Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s statement that Belgrade is considering changing the watercourse of the Ibar River due to Pristina’s treatment of the Serbs in Kosovo, Rama posted that the Ibar River will continue flowing according to geography, rather than folklore, noting that it is why international water law exists. 

Rama posted on X that “Albania has no claim whatsoever on Serbian territory… nor do we need ‘a Greater Albania’ to stand with Kosovo.”

“Serbia lost Kosovo,” he wrote. “The territory of the Republic of Kosovo is not Serbian territory, and the natural resources situated within it are not resources of the Republic of Serbia.” Rama also said that the rights, security, property, language, cultural and religious heritage of the Serbian community must be protected.