Savkovic: Even Kurti knows his demand for changes in the Ground Safety Zone will not succeed

Marko Savkovic, Senior Advisor at the ISAC Fund, believes that Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti lacks support from Western allies for his stance that the Ground Safety Zone (GSZ) should be returned to a five-kilometer width, or to the situation before 2001, when members of the Serbian Army were not present there.

Kurti expressed this position last weekend, arguing that Serbia "has brought its army to the border four times in the past two years, including artillery."

"The decision to allow the presence of our armed forces in the Ground Safety Zone in 2001 was an expression of trust and an evolution of Serbia's relations with Western countries that are members of NATO. Kurti may find interlocutors on this topic, but it would be very difficult for all NATO members, where decisions are made by consensus, to support such a request," Savkovic told Kosovo Online.

He reminds that, even when the incident in Banjska occurred last September, there were calls to exclude Serbia from certain international organizations and forums, but this did not receive a positive response.

"I think the assumption is that it’s always better to keep Serbia involved and close, even in situations where it may seem like it missed doing something or is acting in a way that might go against majority thinking in the West. It is true that Serbia had military movements in several critical situations, but that was the end of it. It wasn't even a show of force, more like a kind of warning in case what both Belgrade and certainly Serbian citizens fear happened – an exodus from the north, which has been much speculated about, and we all hope that is not the scenario we will face in the end," Savkovic said.

Before Kurti's statement about the GSZ, on September 13, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, outlining measures Belgrade would take regarding the situation in Kosovo, announced that Serbia would again submit a request for the return of up to a thousand Serbian soldiers and police officers to Kosovo, for which, as he said, the right moment would come by the end of the year. 
Savkovic notes that what is happening here is actually a "battle of narratives."

"You respond to a maximalist demand, or a demand you perceive as maximalist, with your own equally maximalist demand, knowing that it won't be accepted. I even think Prime Minister Kurti probably anticipated that his call regarding the GSZ wouldn’t succeed, but this is a way to present to his partners or the wider public that he is somehow under threat," Savkovic explained.