Radojkovic: Relations between Kurti and Rama will remain tense

Historian Stefan Radojkovic believes that the process nearing its conclusion at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague against former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army will not be a factor that helps overcome the years long disagreements between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, but that there is certainly consensus across the Albanian world regarding the role of the KLA in the wars of 1998, 1999 and after June 1999.

“There is consensus on that, and it will not change regardless of the verdict in the Specialist Chambers in The Hague,” Radojkovic told Kosovo Online.

He believes that relations between Albin Kurti and Edi Rama will remain tense, although there will be no disagreements on strategic issues.

“The Pristina administration is surrounded on all sides by other states and has no access to the sea. It vitally needs access via the highway, through Tirana and Drac, to the Adriatic Sea, so they will never worsen relations to the point that they are completely severed between Pristina and Albania. However, disagreements on a personal level between Kurti and Rama will certainly exist,” he said.

According to him, Rama and Kurti are quite similar in the sense that both hold socialist ideological views and have been in decision-making positions for a long time, especially Edi Rama, who has been in power for 13 years.

“Kurti does not have such a long tenure, but he aspires to have one and to last that long, if not longer. They will compete for primacy within the Albanian world, and on a personal level, there will be no real agreement between them, but strategically speaking, Albania will be a guarantor of the existence of the Pristina administration, and it will try to keep that administration alive as much as it can,” Radojkovic points out.

As he adds, however, that is not Albania’s primary foreign policy plan or goal.

“Their plan is primarily to join the European Union and to maintain good relations with the administration of the United States. In that sense conflicts also arise between Rama and Kurti, because Kurti is someone who wants to be as independent as possible in decision making, which simply is not possible,” our interlocutor emphasized.