Summary of the Week 89

Holiday after holiday, and we have already left a third of January behind us. Ahead of us once again are calculations, negotiations, and persuasion. For many this week also brings water—an insurmountable obstacle both for citizens and for the authorities.

Some prepare for this week all year long, others for at least forty days. For some, these are the most important moments in life and a sense of inner peace returning to a place where it had long been absent, such as the Church of St. Nicholas in Pristina.

“Coming to this church means a new birth for me, the return of our people,” one of the faithful shared his impressions from the Christmas liturgy.

Preparation itself is a holiday. Gathering, reconciliation, joy. With those closest to you, or with everyone you know. To be seen and to be heard.

“For Christmas, you don’t hold back,” say residents of Strpce. “You don’t ask about the price. Whatever you need, you take, and that’s it…”

You don’t ask about the price—but something else cannot pass without questions. When a prepared greeting is too loud and visible to everyone, like the banner in Mitrovica, it can become a problem.

“The police asked that the banner be removed, without any explanation whatsoever,” Mayor of North Mitrovica Milan Radojevic told Kosovo Online.

“We asked them to clearly tell us which provision of the law we were violating. They had no answer,” Radojevic said.

An unexpectedly conciliatory response arrived soon afterward, and the banner remained in place. Still, the pre-Christmas sparring lasted long enough to recall some earlier Christmas Eve incidents—planned or accidental—because of which the holiday fog over Kosovo never fully lifts, instead leaving us to ask for years: who is defending themselves, and why, by attacking?

On Christmas Eve 2023, when two young men were wounded in Gotovusha, recalls then-mayor Dalibor Jevtic.

“During the trial, the defense is trying to turn him into a victim by claiming that the one who fired the shots acted in self-defense.” Jevtic adds: “To this day, I ask the question—what was Azem Kurtaj defending himself from?”

From the holiday mood, we quickly return to an ordinary, post-election week. And there we are met by preparations for a new government and a new reality—one that analysts believe will look much like what we are used to.

“It seems to me that Kurti will only change the form; pressure on the Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija, especially in the north, will continue, but this time it will be carried out through institutional means,” historian Stefan Radojkovic told Kosovo Online.

There are also those who will say that the holiday glow merely masked reality, and that there is no need to prepare for the worst. Thus, a professor from South Mitrovica, Nexhmedin Spahiu, says:

“What was believed to be Kurti’s opposition to the Serbian community in Kosovo has proven not to be true.”

Who was rewarded for their claims was seen in the elections. Who predicted correctly, and who prepared poorly, will become clear in the coming weeks. And that we are still not ready for nature and its moods has already been seen by all those who, because of the approaching waters, did not sleep peacefully.