Graovac: Kurti will not stop; he is not interested in dialogue but in causing conflicts

Analyst from the Center for Social Stability Srdjan Graovac warns that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti is again applying the same strategy in order to prevent the reaching of an agreement in the dialogue and the formation of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities, namely mass arrests, causing disorder and raising tensions that would provoke a reaction from Belgrade and the Serbs in Kosovo.

Graovac indicates for Kosovo Online that after everything that happened after the failure of last week's round of dialogue in Brussels, it is clear that Kurti will follow the path of a new escalation.

"And at the previous negotiations, in May, it also stopped with the CSM, which Kurti refused to form even then. And after that, Kurti's reaction was the same as it is now. Mass arrests of the Serbs began, causing riots with the clear aim to stop every discussion about the CSM and to shift everything to a new topic - de-escalation," Graovac says.

He adds that Kurti is aware that if there are talks in Brussels, if the negotiations go their way, then they will concern the CSM first of all.

"That's why it suits Kurti that those negotiations are constantly focused on de-escalation, on the issue of high tensions in the north, and this is something that he will devote himself to in the coming period as well. He will continue to strain relations, try to cause new crisis situations, to provoke the Serbs to react. In any case, every situation and conversation is better for him than a conversation about the CSM. Therefore, there is no doubt what his behavior will be in the future," our interlocutor notes.

Graovac says that the messages of the Minister of Interior Xhelal Svecla that the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, will be arrested if he comes to Kosovo without notice and permission from the Pristina institutions, were given with the aim of raising tensions and provoking a reaction from both Belgrade and the Serbs in Kosovo.

"What they want the most is a sharp reaction from Belgrade, a sharp reaction from the Serbs, which would lead to an even greater deterioration of the situation in the north, the security situation, which would lead to conflict, if possible, to war. This is what Kurti wishes for, because in those circumstances there will be no discussion of the CSM. In those circumstances, only de-escalation will be discussed. Kurti hopes that in those circumstances there could be a direct opposition of Belgrade and Serbia to the NATO pact. That is somewhere his key wish, and he doesn't hide it," Graovac says.

He has no doubt that Kurti wants the negotiations to fail.

"He does not want these negotiations, he never wanted them. He always said that these negotiations were meaningless for the Albanians because they had nothing to gain from them. They are looking for recognition from Serbia and a place in the UN, but since they know that they will never get such a thing from Belgrade, they think that the negotiations are fundamentally meaningless for them. And that's why they will do everything to stop them, to put them ad acta. And then Kurti will present a new reality to the West in which they will say: here, the negotiations have failed, Pristina has no place in the UN, and the only solution for us is unification with Albania. That, after all, is his goal, the creation of a 'Greater Albania', that's why he is using the failure of the negotiations as his trump card," Graovac says.

He says that Kurti openly demonstrated his Greater Albanian aspirations during his recent visit to North Macedonia and warns that the eventual unification of Kosovo and Albania would only be the first stage and that this project should also include the territories of other countries.

"Kurti's first obstacle to the realization of a "Greater Albania" is the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, because they will never come to terms with it. That is why all his actions are aimed at terrorizing the Serbs so that they will leave Kosovo and Metohija because they are a barrier to the achievement of his goals," he points out.

The fact that a series of arrests of the Serbs is happening again, even though recently the head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, clearly requested that the actions of the Kosovo Police be coordinated with the KFOR mission, for Graovac is another indication that Kurti does not respect what he is being told from the West.

"He behaves extremely arrogantly. And this tells us that he has clear support for what he is doing and that all those statements that we have the opportunity to hear are essentially pro forma, and that the West also supports Kurti and his behavior. Therefore, I do not expect any particular reaction from the West in the coming period, unless the USA eventually concludes that the right moment has come to discipline Kurti and speed up the negotiation process. This may eventually become a reality if the US administration concludes that they need certain successes ahead of the presidential election, and if they conclude that they can achieve success here. In that case, we can expect the Americans to completely take over the negotiation process, and then they will behave differently towards Kurti. More specifically, Kurti will have to be more cooperative with their demands. If he doesn't, then what happened during the Trump administration will happen to him, which is to remove him from power, to replace him, because they have the instruments for that," Graovac concluded.