Mitic: Anti-Serbian narrative in Kosovo is a constant

Aleksandar Mitic, a research associate at the Institute for International Politics and Economy in Belgrade, assessed that the anti-Serbian narrative among the Albanian population in Kosovo is a constant and that it will take a lot of time and effort to change it.

"The anti-Serbian narrative existing in the Albanian population in Kosovo and Metohija is something that is constant, something that led to the escalation of the crisis in the eighties and nineties, to conflicts and to the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija after June 1999, to the March 2004 pogrom. Of course, including the latest rounds of ethnic cleansing, primarily in the north of Kosovo and Metohija in recent years under the leadership of Albin Kurti. Unfortunately, this is something that is constant, and we cannot say that this anti-Serbian narrative has just now emerged," Mitic stated to Kosovo Online.

Commenting on the conclusions from the regional conference held at the end of last month in Pristina that "ethnonationalism, anti-gender narrative, religious extremism, and anti-Serbian narrative in Kosovo are interconnected and are increasing, contributing to divisions in society," Mitic says it is good that this problem is being highlighted, but he believes that it is a belated reaction.

"It is a narrative that has been built within the broader Albanian population. Unfortunately, it will take a lot of time and a lot of effort to change it," Mitic emphasizes.

He specifies that "the Serbian question" for political elites in Kosovo today serves to divert attention from other, much more important issues.

"The problems that exist in Kosovo and Metohija, especially economic, are something that is fundamentally important above all for the Albanian population. The constant shifting of focus to threats coming from Serbs, from Belgrade, especially in recent years to threats that supposedly come from some Russian misinformation or Serbian-Russian hybrid pressure has become very popular, especially since 2022 in the discourse of Albin Kurti," highlights Mitic.

Such a narrative, he specifies, does not solve the problems.

"This is something that cannot cover up the problems faced primarily by the economy in Kosovo and Metohija. The fact is that neither the USA nor the EU have succeeded in doing enough to improve the economic situation in Kosovo and Metohija sufficiently to calm this quite extreme and anti-Serbian narrative," warns Mitic.